The Airports Council International (ACI) announced this week the winners of the 2016 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards. Introduced in 2006, ASQ is a global benchmarking program that measures passengers’ satisfaction while they are traveling through an airport. The program provides research tools and management information to airport facilities operators to help them better understand passengers’ views and what they want from an airport’s products and services.
The ASQ Survey has become the world’s leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark with over 320 airports participating, across 80 countries. Its scientific methodology, strict quality control procedures, and commitment to impartiality have won industry recognition and established the ASQ Survey as the global standard for measuring passenger satisfaction.
Categories for the ASQ Awards are: Best Airport by Region (under two million passengers per year); Best Improvement by Region; Best Airport by Size and Region; Best Airport by Region (over two million passengers per year); and Best Airport by Size.
In North America, the airports taking 1st place for 2016 in the category of “Best Airport by Region (under two million passengers per year)” are: Indianapolis Airport (IND); Jacksonville Airport (JAX); and Toronto Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ).
“I am delighted that as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of helping airports understand how best to serve their customers with the ASQ Programme, we see our largest group of winners ever,” said Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World. “These airports have dedicated themselves to delivering a stellar customer experience. Promoting a culture of continuous service improvement has become a matter of gaining competitive advantage and optimizing non-aeronautical revenue performance. ACI proudly recognizes these accomplishments and we look forward to seeking more effective, efficient and profitable ways of serving the flying public together.”
ASQ is the only worldwide program to survey passengers at the airport on their day of travel. Every year, the program delivers some 600,000 individual surveys in 41 languages in 84 countries. It measures passengers’ views of 34 key performance indicators, including: airport access, check-in, security screening, restrooms, stores, and restaurants. Each airport uses the same survey, creating an industry database that allows those facilities to compare themselves to other airport facilities around the world. The ASQ Programme also has a feature that facilitates sharing of best practices among airport operators.
The ASQ Awards are presented to those airports whose customers have rated them the highest over the course of the year. The categories have been designated to recognize the achievements of airports of different sizes and in different regions.
The ASQ Awards Ceremony will be held at the 27th ACI Africa/World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition in Port Louis, Mauritius in October 2017. The full list of airports recognized by the 2016 awards are found at the ACI website.