Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi airports score high on ACI service quality world rankings

Three Indian airports have received awards during the 2010 annual airport service quality (ASQ) survey of Airports Council International (ACI).

This year, the top five airports in the world are all from east Asia.

1) Seoul Incheon (ICN), 2) Singapore Changi (SIN), 3) Hong Kong Int’l (HKG) 4) Beijing Capital Int’l (PEK) and 5) Shanghai Pudong (PVG).

As per the ACI release

To be eligible for the annual ASQ awards, an airport must participate in the ASQ Survey during all four quarters of the year. In 2010 the survey was conducted at 153 airports and 140 qualified (full year participation). The survey is carried out in strict accordance with a fieldwork survey plan, developed by ACI, which guarantees a representative sample of the flights, destinations and passenger groups served by the airport. ACI audits the process to ensure compliance and to validate the results.

ACI uses a scale of 1~5 (highest) to score airports. All privately run airports must maintain a level of 3.75 or higher.

Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) won top honours in the 5~15 million passenger size category, while Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) was placed second in the 15~25 million passenger category, and New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was placed fourth in the 25~40 million passenger category.

In a rating scale of 1 to 5 (best), IGIA has effectively achieved a rating of 4.49, which improved it’s rank to 12th worldwide, up from last year’s rank of 32nd. IGIA has been rising in the ASQ rating over the years. In 2007 IGIA’s ASQ rating was 3.02, 3.15 in 2008, 4.16 points in 2009 after the inauguration of Terminal 1 D. 2010 has seen the opening of the new integrated Terminal 3 or T3 which has pushed the airport’s rating above 4.5 since, so we can look to a higher rating next year too.

For 2010, CSIA achieved a rating of 4.39 and was ranked 21st worldwide up from 3.96 and rank 68 in 2009. 2010 also saw CSIA opening the intermediate Terminal 1C and in similar form to IGIA the ranking of CSIA are expected to increase in the 2011 survey.

Surprisingly, the Bengaluru International Airport which was awarded with “India’s best managed airport” last year, did not feature anywhere in the ACI ASQ award list, though Zurich airport which also manages the airport operations at Bangalore did win third place in the Europe geography. In 2009 BIAL achieved an ASQ score of 4.2.

The full award list is in the graphic below. Click on the image for a larger view.

From January 2011, many Airports Authority of India operated airports have joined the ACI ASQ program. These include Ahmedabad, Goa, Trivandrum, Calicut, Guwahati, Jaipur, and Pune.

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About Devesh Agarwal

A electronics and automotive product management, marketing and branding expert, he was awarded a silver medal at the Lockheed Martin innovation competition 2010. He is ranked 6th on Mashable's list of aviation pros on Twitter and in addition to Bangalore Aviation, he has contributed to leading publications like Aviation Week, Conde Nast Traveller India, The Economic Times, and The Mint (a Wall Street Journal content partner). He remains a frequent flier and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Indian aviation industry without fear or favour.

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