ACI announces evolution of Industry leading Airport Service Quality program

Third Customer Experience Global Summit gets underway in Montreal

Montreal, 8 September 2021 – Airports Council International (ACI) World has today announced a major new evolution of its industry-leading Airport Service Quality program as the third annual Customer Experience Global Summit kicked off in Montreal.

ASQ surveys measure passengers’ satisfaction while they are travelling through an airport and provide the research tools and management information for airports to better understand passenger views, what they can improve, and the services  passengers want from them.

To ensure that this program addresses what members and passengers need and to remains relevant and responsive to changing passenger attitudes, expectations, and needs, ACI announced to participants at the global summit a major new evolution of the ASQ Departures Survey:

• New key performance indicators to better monitor the evolving customer journey
• New demographic and behavioural questions to better understand passengers’ needs and expectations
• Customer emotional response will also be measured through the questionnaire to understand how this impacts their level of satisfaction with the airport experience
• New ASQ Departures Plus – offered only via tablet – will include the capacity to choose additional questions to deploy from a catalogue of pre-defined ones.

In creating these improvements, ACI has ensured that key historical data – which is so important in benchmarking performance over time – will not be lost as 70% of the KPIs are the same (or slightly improved) and the remaining 30% are new opportunities to better understand today’s passenger journey.

“Our Customer Experience Global Summit is all about bring industry leaders together to discuss and explore how we can continue to prioritize the voice of our customers and ensure that we continue to meet their needs,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said.

“We are bringing a good number of delegates physically to Montreal with a hybrid meeting and we welcome the industry back to our first global summit since 2019.

“ACI has evolved the ASQ program to reflect the changing expectations of passengers to gain a deeper understanding of passenger profiles and behaviours.

“More than any other time in the program’s history, this responsive approach has been important to ASQ remaining the key industry program assisting airports to understand how to increase passenger satisfaction and improve business performance in this fast-changing landscape.

“We are excited to bring the global summit back to the international aviation events calendar as it comes at a crucial time for our industry as we navigate a recovery and look to rebuild global connectivity with the customer at the heart of our plans.

“We would like to thank Amadeus for the continue support provided for the ASQ Awards, and also all sponsors that helped to bring this event to the aviation community.”

The third edition of ACI World’s Customer Experience Global Summit is being held as a hybrid conference at Montreal’s Palais des Congres until 9 September exploring the theme Gateway to the new travel journey: Share. Rethink. Evolve. The event comprises physical and virtual elements.

Notes for editors

1. More information on the Customer Experience Global Summit
2. More information on ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer experience group which provides airports with a 360-degree view of customer experience management with a unique suite of solutions, helping airports worldwide to manage and deliver the best experience for their customers.
3. Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world’s airports, was founded in 1991 with the objective of fostering cooperation among its member airports and other partners in world aviation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization. In representing the best interests of airports during key phases of policy development, ACI makes a significant contribution toward ensuring a global air transport system that is safe, secure, customer-centric and environmentally sustainable. As of January 2021, ACI serves 701 members, operating 1933 airports in 183 countries.

Media contacts

David Whitely
ACI World
Telephone: +1 514 373 1200
Email: mediarelations@aci.aero