Hyderabad | 16 February, 2010
1st position in 5-15 million passengers category
5th position amongst all airports worldwide
5th position in the Asia- Pacific region
Hyderabad, 16th February, 2010: The GMR Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has been adjudged as the best airport among the 5 to 15 million passenger capacity airports in the world. Airports Council International (ACI), the definitive authority of the world's airports, today announced the top performing airports in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey. RGIA bagged first position in the 5 to 15 million passenger capacity airports in the world. It also captured fifth position amongst all airports, both worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region. This unique achievement comes within less than two years of the green field airport having commenced operations.
The Awards will be formally presented on 13th May, 2010 during a gala dinner at the ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Conference & Exhibition to be held in Hainan, China.
Under the terms of the concession agreement, GMR RGIA was mandated to achieve a score of 3.5 on a 5 point scale within 3 years of operation. Against this, for the first time in Indian aviation history, we have bagged the title of the best airport in the world in the 5 – 15 million passenger category averaging a rating of 4.44 against the mandated 3.5. This achievement has also catapulted GMR RGIA to the 5th position amongst the best airports in the world for all categories. This is a matter of immense pride for the entire nation and the State of Andhra Pradesh in particular.
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. G. M. Rao, Group Chairman of GMR, said, “This is an exciting and joyous development for the entire Group and I am delighted to know that the Hyderabad airport has achieved this wonderful landmark within such a short time. I wish to thank all the customers who gave their valuable feedback that was instrumental in getting our airport rated as the best in the world, in its category. I would also like to congratulate all the employees of GHIAL, as well as all those employees of the airlines, the CISF, Customs, Immigration, the ground handlers, parking attendants, transport community, housekeeping attendants, our retail and food & beverage concessionaires and everybody who contributed in a very big way, for providing quality service of world class standards to our customers.”
Mr. P. Sripathy, CEO of GHIAL, said, “While this award is testimony of the prestige it brings on an international level, it also recognizes the hard work of all the airport staff and stakeholders, over the past year. We will be motivated to further raise the bar in terms of our service quality to all our customers, and thus create newer benchmarks in the coming years in India. We are indeed grateful to the passenger community for rating us as the best amongst the world’s 5-15 million passenger airports.”
The Airports Council International (ACI) is an autonomous and independent body that undertakes the ASQ Survey capturing the passengers’ immediate perception of the quality of more than 34 aspects of service that they have experienced at the airport from check-in through to departure at the gate. Interviewing covers every day of the week and every month of the year to ensure coverage of all seasons and all peaks and troughs. A reliable monitor of airport service, ASQ is used by many airports as one of the key performance indicators of the airport’s service. ASQ data is often linked into service level agreements, key performance indicators, concession agreements, privatization agreements and remuneration contracts all over the world.
To be eligible for the annual rankings, an airport must participate during all four quarters of the year. Thanks to the extensive and regular feedback, the ASQ programme allows airports to immediately reap the benefits of gaining insight into how their passengers rate them, and they can also follow the results of other participating airports around the world.
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