Time-tested and first-time winners recognized from every region across the globe

Results based on ACI World’s globally-established Airport Service Quality programme

Montreal, 6 March 2019 – Airports Council International (ACI) World has today revealed the winners of its world-renowned Airport Service Quality Awards which recognize those airports around the world that deliver the best customer experience in the opinion of their own passengers.

Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore, India, has won the first ever ASQ Arrivals Award, based on the new Arrivals Survey – it is the first airport in the world to win both a Departures and an Arrivals award.

Perennial winners from around the world include Indianapolis International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, and Toronto Pearson,  Aeroporto di Roma-Fiumicino, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Delhi’s, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, and Sheremetyevo International Airport.

This year, a number of airports have won their first ASQ Award, including Aeropuerto Internacional Ramón Villeda Morales in Honduras, as well as Dublin, Oslo, Helsinki, Southampton, Bristol, and London City airports. Spain’s Aeropuerto de Almería, Aeropuerto de Girona, Aeropuerto de Melilla, Aeropuerto de Zaragoza, and Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche are also first time winners. Fort McMurray Airport in Canada and Muscat Airport in Oman are also newcomers to the ASQ Awards fraternity, while several top-performing previous winners have again featured prominently.

In the new “Best Infrastructure and Facilitation” category, no fewer than seven Indonesian and eight Chinese airports are recognized in their size category.

“The Airport Service Quality Awards celebrate the achievements of airports in delivering the best customer experience and they represent the highest possible accolade for airport operators around the world,” said ACI World Director General Angela Gittens.

“In both the traditional and new categories, these airports have responded to the evolving needs of passengers to deliver higher levels of service and an award-winning performance.

“Airports have recognized that delivering a better customer experience is an important business tool in an increasingly competitive industry. ACI’s ASQ is the only globally-established programme that provides objective measurement and benchmarking for airports to help drive their performance.”

The winning airports will come together at the ASQ Awards Ceremony which will be held during the second ACI Customer Experience Global Summit, taking place in Bali, Indonesia in September.

The Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme is the world’s leading airport passenger service and benchmarking programme. The ASQ Departures programme measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators. Three quarters of the world’s 100 busiest airports are part of the ASQ programme which means that, in 2018, more than half of the world’s 8.3 billion travellers passed through an ASQ airport.

A range of new award categories, recognizing excellence in segments of the customer experience announced earlier this year, have produced a diverse group of winners, illustrating the commitment to the customer experience of airports around the world.

ASQ DEPARTURES AWARDS

NEW AWARD CATEGORIES

ASQ ARRIVALS AWARD

source: https://aci.aero/news/2019/03/06/worlds-top-airports-for-customer-experience-revealed/

SINGAPORE. Jewel Changi Airport is to open on 17 April, Changi Airport Group has announced.

Described as a multi-dimensional tourist destination, the mixed-use complex will offer shopping and dining options, a hotel, a five-storey indoor garden, play attractions, and facilities for airport operations.

Jewel Changi Airport will enhance the passenger experience with its myriad range of lifestyle offerings (All photos: Jewel Changi Airport Devt).

Jewel features a distinctive dome-shaped façade made of glass and steel. The complex was designed by a consortium comprising Safdie Architects, led by architect Moshe Safdie, RSP Architects Planners and Engineers and Benoy.

Changi Airport Group said the design concept represents “the juxtaposition of a park and marketplace”. This is exemplified in the Forest Valley and Rain Vortex features that form the centrepiece of the complex, surrounded by more than 280 retail stores and food & beverage locations.

[A bird’s-eye view: This cute and colourful video offers a preview of the “wondrous world” of Jewel Changi Airport.]

Shoppers will be able to traverse seamlessly between nature and retail as they step into the corridors from the walking trails of the Forest Valley. The 40 metre Rain Vortex will be the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

Changi Airport Group said Singapore residents will be able to preview Jewel before the public opening, between 11 and 16 April. They will be able to shop and dine at more than 90% of Jewel’s shopping and dining outlets. It will be a ticketed event, but free of charge. Registration will open online at jewelpreview.com on 12 March. A total of 500,000 tickets will be available.

Fresh look: Jewel features a distinctive dome-shaped façade made of glass and steel.

Among the anchor stores and facilities at Jewel are the largest Nike store in Southeast Asia, Marks & Spencer, Muji, Zara, Uniqlo, Shaw Theatres with IMAX and FairPrice Finest, offering exclusive products and specially curated sections and event areas.

Five Spice, the food court operated by Food Junction, will also feature over 10 local brands, such as Faai Di by Ka-Soh and Fu Lin Yong Tofu, which have more than 20 years of culinary heritage.

Jewel will launch its Double Rewards programme from 11 April for members of both Changi Rewards and CapitaStar loyalty programmes. With Double Rewards, shoppers earn both Changi Rewards points and STAR$ with each transaction at Jewel.

Jewel will offer a wide range of retail and dining offerings, including exciting new-to-Singapore concepts, top international brands and home-grown names.

Members of the public are being encouraged to use public transport to visit Jewel, with a variety of train and bus services available. Changi T1 is integrated with Jewel via the Level 1 Arrival Hall, while T2 and T3 are linked to Jewel via air-conditioned pedestrian linkways.

The new T1/Jewel car park, which opened partially in November 2018, will be fully operational from 11 April. The car park spans five underground levels.

Seamless integration: Jewel Changi Airport will be connected to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the MRT station via pedestrian bridges.

An Early Check-in Lounge will open on 17 April and serves passengers of 26 airlines. Changi Airport Group said a left luggage service will be available for passengers from that date.

The Canopy Park and its attractions, situated on the uppermost level of Jewel, will open in mid-2019. The below video offers a closer look.

source : https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/a-singapore-spectacular-jewel-changi-airport-to-open-on-17-april/

Keflavík Airport is one of Iceland’s major transportation hubs. It is the largest airport on the island and the country’s main transfer site for international travellers. Over the past decade, it faced a rapid growth in passenger volumes, from just over 3 million in 2013 to 9 million in 2017. In recent years, international requirements concerning aviation security issues at airports have increased substantially. Nevertheless, Keflavík has been eager to maintain – and improve – the experience for passengers. The airport chose to install Vanderlande’s PAX OPTIMA advanced passenger checkpoint (APC) solution. It has allowed Keflavík to increase passenger throughput, enhance its use of staff resources, and improve the overall experience for passengers. More information: https://www.vanderlande.com/case-stud…

As airports handle record numbers, crowded check-in halls are becoming more commonplace, prompting airports to rethink their approach to space, resources and passenger experience.

Common-use terminals are gaining popularity as an efficient way to accommodate more travellers. With multiple airlines sharing airport space including counters and bag drops, airports can manage resources better to meet demand and improve throughput.

It’s time for a holistic approach

Sharing resources presents its own challenges. How can airports optimise the check-in process for efficiency while smoothing the travel experience? How do they balance the needs of full cost and low service airlines in one terminal? And, how do they adapt to growing preferences for online or self-service check-in?

Without a holistic view of check-in areas and the right insight tools, it’s challenging to achieve the right quality/cost balance for airline customers and passenger experience. The shift to common-use resources, therefore, requires a new approach.

Optimizing space

Typically, hall allocation is stacked in favor of heavy-hitter airlines – not towards the best use of available space.

When allocating check-in resources, consider the entire terminal. Collect and analyze queue formation data, plus processing rates by counter and airline, to identify congestion or safety issues. As well as being used for allocating a fixed resource, a holistic view also helps determine the optimum location for self-check-in kiosks

Predicting passenger behavior

Traditional check-in models allocate static desks per flight for three hours. This results in uneven capacity management. Data from Dolby and Holder Consulting suggests that fixed counter timeframes cause a 40% decrease in capacity, require 22% more handling agents, and cost 22 minutes in lost dwell time.

By layering show-up profiles with check-in preferences per flight, airports can more accurately predict resource demand. Keflavik Airport, for example, successfully adjusted worker shifts based on forecast arrival/wait times, optimizing costs and services.

Automating resourcing decisions

With sophisticated, often conflicting check-in resource planning considerations, intelligent allocation tools enable airports to automatically balance resource availability and predicted demand with factors like airline preferences and service level agreements.

Models are optimized for maximum efficiency, for instance, grouping airlines by ground handler to reduce baggage errors. Passenger experience factors, like walk time, can also be addressed by coordinating resource allocation from check-in to gate.

Intelligent automation both optimizes resources for blue-sky days and allows for flexible planning for unexpected events and improved impact forecasting.  When Sydney Airport implemented a holistic approach to check-in together with automated resource allocation, capacity increased by 15%.

Incentivizing better throughput

Directly linking resourcing to billing allows airports to demonstrate the financial and efficiency benefits of resource-sharing to airline partners, whose early engagement is critical in any operations process transformation.

Differentiated charge structures can also be used to incentivise airline efficiency including the uptake of dynamic counter allocation and self-serve check-in kiosks.  For instance, Auckland Airport differentiates charging for check-in services to distinguish between traditional counters, common-use versus dedicated bag drop facilities.

Happier passengers, more efficient airports and airlines

This holistic, predictive collaboration approach to check-ins helps reduce queues and improve the passenger experience – and happy travelers tend to spend more time and money in concessions.

Airports and airlines win too. More fluid check-in resource usage and efficiency gains enable airports to defer expansion investments and introduce common-use self-check and baggage drops, further increasing capacity

A holistic terminal approach really is a common solution for all.

Written by Siobhan Boyle, Product Marketing Manager for Veovo, an intelligent automation platform that enables airports globally, to plan, predict and perfect airport operations.

source : Christian.Carstens@veovo.com