From the time of booking to the final destination, airport and passenger facilitation ensures the flow of travelers, baggage, cargo, and mail is efficient and delivered in a healthy, safe, and secure environment on the ground and in the air. Every day, a complex network of people, companies, airlines, organizations and authorities work together to facilitate the flow of passengers and goods worldwide. Crossing borders requires various checks and controls and these controls and touchpoints must be as efficient and seamless as possible.
To guarantee the best possible customer experience and satisfaction, airports and airlines continue to implement new technologies, information management systems, infrastructure, and best practices that improve terminal flows, processes, accessibility, and their capacity to adapt to flight disruptions.
Through advice, handbooks, recommendations, and training, ACI World provides expertise and tools to help airports and airlines deliver a better experience for passengers and industry stakeholders alike.
ACI World’s Facilitation Experts Provide
The latest handbooks and data-driven recommendations
Resources through ACI’s publications library
Expert insights through the ACI World blog
In-person and online events and learning opportunities
ACI World Facilitation and Services Standing Committee
The ACI World Facilitation and Services Standing Committee advocates on behalf of ACI members to ensure policies and regulations help airports improve terminal flows and take into account passenger growth and its impact on airport facilities.
With a focus on ensuring sustainable airport processes and infrastructure, preparing airports for increasing process complexity and irregularity of operations while providing excellent customer experience, the Committee advocates with decision makers, ensures that partner’s programs bring benefits to airports, recognizes leading airports while issuing guidance and capacity building.
ACI experts and members help shape global airport and passenger facilitation development by participating in industry events and working closely with international partners, including ICAO, the World Customs Organization, the World Economic Forum, the World Travel and Tourism Council, IATA, and the World Health Organization.
Focus Areas
Airport accessibility for passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility
Application of biometrics to border control and airline processes
Airport preparedness for outbreaks of infectious diseases
Airport business continuity management plans
Airport infrastructure
Customer satisfaction and service quality benchmarking (ASQ)
FAL2024: Year of Facilitation
The ICAO Council has named 2024 the "Year of Facilitation" (FAL2024), with a focus on emphasizing the importance and transformative potential of air transport facilitation. FAL 2024 will feature activities covering various aspects outlined in the ten Chapters of Annex 9, organized in collaboration with ICAO Member States and partner organizations like ACI World. These activities encompass webinars, events, and training sessions. ICAO Member States, international organizations, and other stakeholders are encouraged to join ICAO in celebrating FAL 2024 and to actively contribute to promoting and enhancing global awareness of the significance of facilitation.
Airport and Passenger Facilitation Initiatives
ACI’s Accessibility Enhancement Accreditation (AEA) program provides a continuous path of improvement for airports in the area of accessibility for passengers with disabilities.
ACI’s member airports play a critical role in the fight to suppress human trafficking activity through education, vigilance and a strong reporting culture. This can be accomplished by promoting awareness and training to the entire airport community.
The Future of Travel and Digital Identity at Airports report, developed by the ACI World Facilitation and Services Standing Committee, acknowledges the critical period during which the aviation industry finds itself today, looks at the importance placed on digital identity and biometrics in the future of travel and enables airport leaders to have meaningful discussions about digital identity.
ACI World works with industry stakeholders to explore how biometrics can improve passenger identification and streamline airport security.
The Passenger Facilitation Performance Metrics Handbook, issued in collaboration with Airbiz, provides key tools for airports as they manage the flow of passenger and baggage in a safe and secure way, while meeting and exceeding passenger expectations. It will help airports identify and employ different types of key performance metrics in passenger facilitation and will describe how they can benefit from emerging trends in the use of airport data to improve communication between airports, airlines, and government agencies.
A joint initiative between ACI’s Facilitation and Services and Economics Standing Committees, this document provides guidelines on the development of a contractual service-level agreement framework between airport owners, operators, regulators, and third-party service providers.
The potential for events to disrupt “normal business operations” at airports creates the need for robust business continuity management plans. Airport authorities develop appropriate plans that take account of a wide range of possible events, to enable them prepare and cope with disruptions, and to return to normal operations as soon as possible, making full use of business continuity planning.
ACI’s guidelines help airports improve their response to health-related emergencies and reduce exposure to communicable diseases at the airport by establishing mechanisms for rapid decision-making and action.
Discover our Airport Service Quality Program
To foster best practices worldwide, ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) program provides airports with resources and benchmarking tools to measure and enhance passenger satisfaction.