Another year has passed and the vote of the travelling public has been revealed. This year’s winner of the award which evaluates the level of services and character of airports is known. The award stays in Asia as Incheon International Airport of South Korea replaces Hong Kong International at the very top.
Flying has become immensely popular in recent years. People are simply willing to pay a little extra for the speed and comfort of a flight. Once everyone got used to the actual act of flying, the demand for better service has of course increased. People simply started paying more attention to the diverse airport settings – where they often need to wait for hours for connecting flights or wait through delays.
Since 1999, a survey has been run buy Skytrax which aims at revealing which airport is held in high esteem by the travelers, mirrors their expectations and delivers a high standard of satisfaction. It is not just a survey which analyzes a few filled-in-questionnaires; in 2008/2009, some 8,6 million passengers participated in the survey to openly express their opinion on a range of 190 airports worldwide. The participants were asked to evaluate 39 different airport ‘products’ or service features including check-in, arrivals, transfers to departure gate or between terminals.
Asian airports are traditionally held in high esteem; the top three were in a very close range according to the survey results, however, Incheon International Airport in Soeul, South Korea, takes the gold this year. Last year’s most popular Hong Kong International Airport was pushed to 2nd place, and Singapore Changi was awarded 3rd place. Finally, Zurich is 4th, being pronounced Europe’s best airport, followed by Munich. Japan’s Kansai was 5th this year followed by Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam. 9th place was taken by another Japanese airport, Centrair Nagoya and the New Zealand’s Auckland is the final airport to make it into the top ten.
The competition is fierce, which is a great thing – after all, the more we travel, the more demanding we get and our need for excellent services is the drive pushing the standards of world travel to much higher standards.