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A top priority for the worldwide airports association Airports Council International (ACI) is constant improvement of customer service delivery. The organisation’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) benchmarking programme promotes professional excellence and management commitment to world-class service goals and each year recognizes top performers in eleven ASQ programme categories.
ACI is pleased to announce that the recipient of the highly prized ACI Director General’s Special Recognition Award is Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). In presenting the award to BCIA President and CEO Mr Zhiyi DONG for his airport’s outstanding service quality achievements in 2008, ACI Director General Angela Gittens praised the airport for its exceptional performance this year and highlighted three key achievements.
Firstly, the commissioning of the new Terminal 3 in March this year was an exceptional achievement. It is not only the largest passenger terminal in the world but it has also set a new standard for passenger comfort and facilitation. And the smooth and seamless transfer of operations to the new terminal was a significant accomplishment, reflecting meticulous planning and preparation.
Secondly, BCIA successfully facilitated the hosting by Beijing of the Olympic Games and Special Para-Olympic Games. In the month of August, BCIA handled more than 5 million passengers, including more than 70,000 participants for the Olympics and 170 Heads of State. To facilitate these numbers and special categories of passengers in such a smooth manner, while providing even higher levels of customer service, was a remarkable achievement.
Thirdly, Gittens recognised the remarkable improvement achieved by BCIA in overall passenger satisfaction during the past 12 months, and the successful customer service training for more than 60,000 staff from 27 business partners operating at the airport. She commended them for their success in mobilising the entire airport community in their customer service improvement initiative, which resulted in significant improvement in passenger satisfaction scores in the ASQ Survey. The fact that this improvement was achieved in the face of a 5 percent increase in passenger numbers makes the achievement all the more noteworthy.
In presenting the award to Mr Dong, Gittens praised the BCIA President and CEO and his staff, “I appreciate that great achievements are not possible without strong, committed leadership. So, I would like this award to recognise your personal commitment, leadership and professionalism in driving customer service excellence at BCIA.
“These achievements are also the result of the professionalism and dedication of your staff. We are a people business, whose goal is to enhance the airport travel experience for our passengers. New and innovative terminal facilities are impressive, but ultimately it is the front line people who make the difference. I would therefore like this award to recognise your staff and the staff of your business partners who have made these achievements at BCIA possible.”
The award ceremony was held at the gala dinner organised during the ACI World Safety Seminar held this week in Beijing, where 200 airport and aviation safety professionals attended a programme focused on all key aspects of airport safety.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
