ACI Europe unveiled the winners of its Best Airport Awards last night (June 19) during the Gala Dinner of the joint ACI World/ ACI Europe General Assembly, Congress & Exhibition, hosted by Brussels Airport in Belgium.
The winners were selected by a judging panel of independent experts from the European Commission, Eurocontrol, European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and European Travel Commission. Participants included more than 500 airports from 45 European countries.
The awards cover four traffic categories of airport and aim to recognize achievements in core activities such as customer service, facilities, retail, security, community relations and environmental awareness and operations.
Under five million passengers
The first award, recognizing airports in the ‘under five million’ category went to Tallinn Airport, Estonia, for its ambitious large-scale expansion and reconstruction of the airside area with no major operational disruption. Torino Airport, Italy, was also highly commended in this category.
Five to 10 million passengers
The joint winners of the ‘5-10 million’ category were Bristol Airport, UK, and Seville Airport, Spain. Bristol Airport was selected for its continued investments in infrastructure, staff training and increased public transport links. The airport was also selected for its new Security Search Facility that has improved the passenger experience at the security control, allowing Bristol to achieve its highest ASQ score for all security indicators.
Seville Airport distinguished itself with its active policy to promote its connectivity and for its “Connecting Seville to the World” project where all the agents involved cooperate to develop the airport traffic.
Ten to 25 million
Hamburg Airport, Germany, won the ‘10-25 million’ category for its innovative additional services to improve the passenger experience and its commitment to the environment. The airport’s significant investment in renewing its ground handling facilities was also positively noted.
Twenty-five million plus
In the category for airports with ‘over 25 million passengers’, this year’s award went to Rome Fiumicino Airport, Italy. The airport won praise from the judges for its smart terminal redesign and its strong focus on the development of new markets and new routes. The continued investments in infrastructure were another reason for recognition. The other highly commended airport in this category was Barcelona-El Prat Airport, Spain.
Elsewhere, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands, collected the Eco-Innovation Award, while Pafos International Airport, Cyprus, was recognized with this year’s Accessible Airport Award.
ASQ Commercial
Leading up to the General Assembly, ACI World launched its ASQ Commercial survey, a new service within its Airport Service Quality (ASQ) program.
The ACI ASQ Commercial survey provides insights into commercial performance and how airports can optimize non-aeronautical revenues. Combined with the departures and arrivals surveys, ASQ is able to provide an insight into every touchpoint of the passenger journey through an airport.
The ASQ Commercial survey helps airports of all sizes to assess their commercial areas – the services that they provide and how customers experience those services – and provides them with valuable insights into why passengers choose to spend or not in commercial areas; which passenger groups use retail, food and beverage and other commercial services the most; what airports should do to improve the commercial services experience for their customers; and what airports can do to improve commercial revenues.
“The development of ASQ Commercial reflects the industry reality that growing competition among airports has increased the importance of passenger experience as a key business driver,” said Angela Gittens, director general, ACI World.
“This new service can help airports make important commercial decisions regardless of their current retail offerings, size, location and passenger make-up.”