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ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, celebrates the announcement of the 2021 ASQ Award winners and recipients of the Voice of the Customer recognition.

As is customary every March, I am pleased to report – for my second year – that ACI has announced the winners of the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, which celebrate and showcase the world’s best airports as voiced by travellers.

This announcement presents to the world the dedication of airports to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

This year’s ASQ Award winners are especially reflective of customer experience leadership during the most challenging time in our sector’s history. Passengers are the centre of airports’ efforts in safely resuming travel and tourism.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have a major impact on passenger traffic in 2021 with evolving health measures and a new set of expectations affecting how the airport is delivered and experienced – from a prioritisation of health to increased digitalisation such as contactless touchpoints.

However, despite all these challenges, airports around the globe have continued to prioritise listening and adapting to the evolving needs of their customers through ASQ surveys, which measure passenger satisfaction across key performance indicators.

From the data collected over 2021, 111 awards have been won by 88 individual airports around the world. The award categories include Best Airports by Size (passengers per year) and Region, as well as Best Hygiene Measures by Region, of which there are 46 winners. View the complete list of winning airports.

The new health and hygiene related questions added to the survey questionnaire in 2020 allows airports to better understand the customer response to new health measures related to COVID-19 and the corresponding award category recognises airports that have successfully responded to them in the eyes of travellers.

The new hygiene category also complements ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme, which helps airports align their health measures in line with the ACI Airport Operations and COVID-19: Business Recovery guidelines and ICAO Council Aviation Restart Task Force recommendations along with industry best practices.

What’s more, ACI has also recently released the ASQ Health Safety Measures Research Report, sponsored by TAV Technologies, that enables airports to gain a clearer understanding of the level of passenger satisfaction with regard to safety and hygiene measures and further develop the targeting and quality of services.

For a second year running, ACI World continues its long-term partnership with global travel technology company Amadeus to deliver the ASQ Awards. ACI and Amadeus will be celebrating the 2021 ASQ winners at an awards ceremony on September 14, 2022, in Krakow, Poland, during the ASQ Forum and ACI Customer Experience Global Summit.

Earlier in February, ACI also announced the recipients of The Voice of the Customer initiative, a recognition that celebrates airports that have continued to prioritise listening and adapting to customers during the pandemic. To qualify, an airport member must have collected three or more quarters of data through the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme.

This year, over 200 airports have been recognised around the world. The delivery of the recognition is also sponsored by Amadeus. View the complete list of recipients.

On behalf of ACI World, I congratulate our new winners and recipients and encourage the entire airport community to leverage the ASQ suite of solutions. The basis of ASQ is continual learning and improvement to reach sustainable airport customer experience excellence.

I also encourage you to read the ASQ Global Traveller Survey. The report offers both a global perspective as well as regional insights into the traveller sentiment during the recovery. The guidance provides regional dashboards highlighting some of the key specificities that should be taken into consideration when designing a customer experience strategic plan for a specific airport.

I have just returned from my first trip to the Asia-Pacific region as ACI World director general, and I will soon be able to visit the Africa region as well. It is good to see travel restrictions begin to ease.

Continuing to listen and adapt to travellers will be absolutely crucial to strengthening airports’ competitive advantage, non-aeronautical revenue, and ensuring the sustained recovery of the entire aviation ecosystem. Bottom line: listening and acting upon the voice of our customers is more important than ever.