Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has, for the first time, become the recipient of two prestigious awards announced by global airport customer experience measurement and benchmarking body, Airport Council International (ACI).

The ACI World revealed the winners of its world-renowned Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards on Monday, March 9, 2020.

The KIA topped the ranking as Africa’s ‘Best Airport By Size and Region’ with a passenger population of between two and five million by the ACI’s Customer Experience Award.

The Terminal 3 of the KIA, which serves regional, international and long-haul operators, was also named the continents ‘Most Improved’ Airport in the year under review.

The Awards which were released in Montreal, Canada, also recognise the largest number of winning airports ever this year.

KIA was among the first time winners, joining consistent winners such as Indianapolis International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Toronto Pearson,  among a host of others.

ACI World Director-General, Angela Gittens said: “The Airport Service Quality Awards represent the highest possible recognition for airport operators around the world and recognize excellence in customer experience.”

“The awards this year have been won by a diverse group of winning airports from around the world which illustrates the industry-wide commitment to delivering exceptional customer experience.

“Delivering a better customer experience is an important business strategy in an increasingly competitive airport industry. ACI’s global ASQ programme is the only one that not only recognises excellence but also provides airports with objective measurement and benchmarking to help drive their performance.

“We are pleased to note that the five winning airports in the category of ‘Best airport by size and region (under two million passengers per year in Europe)’, are all first-time winners of an ASQ award.”

The winning airports will come together at the ASQ Awards Ceremony to be held during the third ACI Customer Experience Global Summit, taking place in Krakow, Poland in September.

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. In 2019, more than half of the world’s 8.8 billion travellers passed through an ASQ airport.

Airport Service Quality (ASQ)

ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) is the world-renowned and globally established global benchmarking programme measuring passengers’ satisfaction whilst they are travelling through an airport.

The ASQ programme provides research tools and management information to better understand passengers’ views and what they want from an airport’s products and services.

It seeks to make airports become more competitive and increases passenger satisfaction by providing them with the necessary edge over their competitors.

Across the globe, passengers are demanding higher levels of service. Likewise, regulators are paying closer attention to airport service provision and quality of service delivery.

2019 ASQ Departures Awards

Winning airports are based on percentages with those in the top 20th percentile recognised across the 40 combinations/categories of awards.