ACI, Travel Agents Tap World's Top Airports

The great thing about awards is that anyone can do them.  And they are especially popular when it comes to rating the world's airports.  And we all know that Singapore's Changi Airport is usually at the top of most airport award lists.

So it was a surprise when Changi was rated only number four worldwide in the latest Airports Council International's (ACI) Service Quality Awards and number five in the American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) awards for most family-friendly airports.

The March 14 issue (subscribers only) of Aviation Daily notes that Seoul, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport was chosen as best worldwide in 2006 by ACI.  Incheon was followed by Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur coming in second and third respectively.  It was the second year in a row that the top three winners were from the Asia-Pacific region.

Zurich was number one in Europe, Dallas-Fort Worth was tops in the Americas and Abu Dhabi won the honors for the Africa-Middle East region.  The awards recognize customer service efforts made by airports taking part in the ACI program and are based on responses to a survey of passengers conducted throughout the year.    The Director General’s Special Recognition Award went to Dubai Airport for showing leadership, innovation and commitment to quality in airport service delivery over the past decade.

In presenting the awards, ACI Director General, Robert Aaronson said that airports around the world have made customer service a major focus. “Those airports that participate in the Airport Service Quality program have made a special commitment to customer service improvement by measuring how passengers respond to services on offer and benchmarking their services against other airports around the world,” he said in a statement.  A complete list of the winners can be seen here.

Now as the traveling mother of an active 16-month-old daughter, I appreciate airports that have all the amenities that make the travel process easier.  And my March 12 story (subscribers only) in Aviation Daily's Airports on the ASTA awards found that for domestic airports, Orlando was the clear winner, garnering a 41.7% response from those polled. Hartsfield came in a distant second at 4.6%, but was lauded for having two play areas, complete with TVs and board games, as well as a dinosaur exhibit and a children's art gallery.

On the international side, London Heathrow Airport, with 24.6% of the votes, won high marks for offering special rooms for feeding and changing infants, as well as a variety of age-appropriate play areas. "For older children, there's a flight simulator game and arcade stations scattered throughout the airport," said ASTA. "Younger children might enjoy the free coloring books and crayons that are dispensed at the information desks."  ASTA's complete survey can be seen here.