Ben Gurion Among Top Mideast Airports, Says Group

YERUSHALAYIM
EL AL planes at Ben Gurion International Airport. Photo by Moshe Shai/FLASH90
El Al planes at Ben Gurion International Airport. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

For the second year in a row, the prestigious Airports Council International (ACI) chose Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport as one of the best airports in the region. Ben Gurion was awarded a 2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award, tying for third place as best airport in the region with Dubai and Saudi Arabia’s Dammam International Airport.

First place went to Amman Queen Alia International Airport, in Jordan. Tying for second place: Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates and Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar.

According to the group, these awards “represent the world’s best class airports as far as improving the customer experience is concerned — as appraised by passengers while they are traveling and the experience is fresh in their minds.”

The award was determined by passenger surveys conducted by ACI, the trade association of the world’s airports. The ASQ Survey covers 34 key service areas and includes eight major categories such as access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage, retail, and more. All participating airports use the same survey questions, creating an across-the-industry standard set of responses that allows participants to track and analyze their performance, as well as benchmark results against airports across the globe. All participating airports can view the ASQ survey results of all other participating airports on a confidential basis. Ben Gurion scored well on most of the parameters, especially security, where it was a runaway number one.

“Airports are more than simply points of departure and arrival,” noted Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World. “They are complex businesses in their own right. As such, a focus on serving the passenger has become increasingly important to ensuring success. In the fast-changing landscape of worldwide aviation, ASQ is the key to understanding how to increase passenger satisfaction and improve business performance. At the end of the day, good business acumen comes down to a simple equation: better service, improved traffic, and a healthier bottom line.”

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