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The 8th Annual ACI Europe Best Airport Awards were announced during the gala dinner of the 22nd ACI EUROPE Annual Congress hosted by Aena Aeropuertos. The award ceremony marked the end of an intensive day of engagement and networking amongst more than 350 industry leaders, including senior representatives from airports, airlines, air traffic management, national governments and the EU institutions. The theme of this year’s event is “Putting the passenger first – from infrastructure managers through to service providers” and this customer service ethos was indeed very much in evidence within all airports’ submissions for the Awards.
This years’ judging panel was drawn from a well-respected group of independent experts including ACI Asia Pacific, EUROCONTROL, ECAC and the Disabled People’s Association (Denmark). ACI Europe counts around 400 airports in 46 European countries among its membership and this year’s competition saw a high level of competition in each of the five categories.
The ACI Europe Best Airport Awards cover 4 categories of airport and aim to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, retail, security and corporate responsibility. There with a separate award devoted specifically to airports’ environmental efforts.
The awards were presented to the winning airports by Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE, Jose Maria Palencia, CEO World Duty Free Group, Manuel Lopez Aguilar, Executive SVP Commercial and Customers Iberia, Tan Sri Bashir, President ACI Asia Pacific and CEO of Malaysia Airports and David McMillan, Director General EUROCONTROL.
The first award, recognising airports in the ‘1-5 million passenger’ category, went to London City Airport. The judges awarded the prize to the airport for its austerity-defying strong traffic growth, but also in recognition of its service quality delivery and in particular for its ultra-efficient ‘door-to-gate’ passenger processing times.
The winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Edinburgh Airport. This is the second Best Airport Awards victory in a row for Edinburgh, with judges being impressed by the airport’s focus on all of its customer base – both passengers and airlines – and in particular by its demonstrable responsiveness to the feedback that these customers provide.
This year’s award in the ‘10-25 million passenger’ category went to Hamburg Airport. Hamburg secured the Award due to its work across a broad range of areas, with a record of excellence in the majority of the judges’ criteria. In particular Hamburg Airport was singled out for its environmental and local community work, alongside its excellent intermodal connectivity.
And in the final category, for airports with ‘over 25 million passengers’, this year’s ACI EUROPE Best Airport award went to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, a previous winner in 2009 and 2011. A common point highlighted by all judges was the airport’s delivery of excellent services and facilities, yet there was also an appreciation of the airport’s consistent commitment to its corporate responsibilities, be it to persons with reduced mobility, the environment, or to the local community which it operates within.
This year’s Eco-Innovation Award, which is awarded by the independent Advisory Board of Airport Carbon Accreditation, went to Manchester Airport in recognition of its passion for environmental innovation. Crucially the airport has worked to secure buy-in from not only a wide range of external stakeholders, but also from internal stakeholders, with staff at all levels appreciating the importance of environmental issues. This ground work has helped ensure that the airport’s enthusiasm for environmental innovation can be successfully transformed into solid actions.
The Joint ACI Europe & ACI World Annual Assembly, Congress & Exhibition will be hosted by TAV Airports and held in Istanbul on 10-12 June 2013.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
