ACI celebrates world’s best airports for customer experience at global summit

Airport Service Quality awards gala recognizes airports judged best by customers

Montreal, 8 September 2021 – During the Customer Experience Global Summit today, Airports Council International (ACI) World in partnership with Amadeus has celebrated the winners of this year’s Airport Service Quality awards which highlight the world’s best airports as judged by their customers.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on global passenger traffic in 2020, it has also affected the expectations customers have for the airport experience. In response, ACI has ensured the ASQ program has evolved with these changing times along with airports that have adapted to better serve our customers.

ACI has introduced a new award – ‘Best Hygiene Measures by Region’ – based on hygiene related questions added to the survey questionnaire. This provides airports with a reliable method of gauging customer response to new health measures and recognizes airports’ success in responding to the intense focus on hygiene.

The awards celebration – held as a hybrid event comprising virtual and physical elements and sponsored by ACI World’s partner Amadeus – tonight recognized 108 awards which have been won by 89 individual airports around the world.

The winners of the ASQ awards for Best Airport by Size & Region and for Best Hygiene Measures by Region, the inductees to the ACI Director General’s Roll of Excellence, and those receiving the Voice of Customer recognition were celebrated.

“Amid the most challenging year in the history of our industry, ACI’s ASQ awards recognize airport members that have prioritized listening and responding to the voice of the customer – this has never been more important,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “I celebrate and congratulate all our winners and those recognized today as they set an example for the entire industry as we rebuild crucial global connectivity and lead the global economic recovery. ACI continues to adapt the ASQ program to ensure the benchmarking and findings remain the industry standard and reflective and relevant for the changing landscape of air travel. I am very happy that we have also continued our successful partnership with global travel technology company Amadeus to deliver the awards.”

Global travel technology company Amadeus and ACI World have entered into a long term partnership to deliver the ASQ Awards, furthering the support for airports to improve the travel experience for passengers all over the world.

“Across the world, airports are adapting the passenger experience to provide a safer and more streamlined airport journey. New technologies like biometrics and contactless self-service will be key to help our industry rebuild air travel so that it’s better for passengers and airport players alike” said Elena Avila, EVP Airport IT and Airline Operations, Amadeus. “Today we celebrate airports that, despite the difficulties of the current environment, place the passenger at the center of what they do, and encourage business transformation while moving the industry forward. We are delighted to continue supporting the ASQ awards together with ACI and join them in congratulating all the winners.”

The Airport Service Quality programme is the world’s leading airport customer experience measurement and benchmarking programme. The ASQ Departures programme measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators. More than half of the world’s travellers pass through an ASQ airport.

Notes for editors

1. Learn more about the ACI ASQ Programme which includes a full suite of customer experience solutions, including the ACI employee survey for customer experience, the ASQ arrival surveys, and the new ASQ Commercial Survey. ASQ delivers 640,000 individual surveys per year in 49 languages across 91 countries.
2. 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.
3. Travel powers progress. Amadeus powers travel. Amadeus’ solutions connect travellers to the journeys they want through travel agents, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and railways.

We have developed our technology in partnership with the travel industry for over 30 years. We combine a deep understanding of how people travel with the ability to design and deliver the most complex, trusted, critical systems our customers need. We help connect over 1.6 billion people a year to local travel providers in over 190 countries.

We are one company, with a global mindset and a local presence wherever our customers need us.

Our purpose is to shape the future of travel. We are passionate in our pursuit of better technology that makes better journeys.

Amadeus is an IBEX 35 company, listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under AMS.MC. The company is also part of the EuroStoxx50 and has been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the last eight years.

To find out more about Amadeus, visit www.amadeus.com.

Media contacts

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

Jennifer Fernandez
Corporate Communications
Amadeus
Telephone: +34 699 854 493
Email: jennifer.fernandez@amadeus.com