Incheon International Airport, Seoul's main gateway, has been named the world's best airport for a record 11th consecutive year, officials said on April 19 at an award presentation ceremony of the Airport Service Quality(ASQ) held at Warner Brothers Movie World in Goldcoast, Australia.
The airport grabbed the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award, presented by the Airports Council International (ACI), as the best in the business, the operator of the airport said. Incheon was also named the best airport in the Asia-Pacific region, and topped the list in the "over 40 million" category for large airports handling at least 40 million travelers annually. Incheon had previously been placed in the "25-40 million" category.
The ASQ Award was launched in 2006. It's based on ACI's passenger satisfaction survey. The ACI's homepage claims that some 550,000 passengers are interviewed per year prior to boarding their flight and asked to rate their satisfaction with services at airports in 34 categories.
The airport won the same award from 2005 to 2015 in the ASQ global ranking in addition to winning the top airport award in the Asia-Pacific region and the award for top airport among the large-scale airports handling over 40 million passengers annually. The airport also won the award for top award for the large-scale airports in the Asia-Pacific region which was presented by the Airport Council International for the first time this year. The airport therefore won three airport awards at the presentation ceremony this year.
The annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards recognize and reward the best airports in the world according to ACI's ASQ passenger satisfaction survey. They represent the highest possible accolade for airport operators and are an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of airports worldwide to continuously improving the passenger experience.
Since its creation in 2006, the ASQ Survey has become the world’s leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark with over 320 airports participating, across 80 countries. Its scientific methodology, strict quality control procedures and commitment to impartiality have won industry recognition and established the ASQ Survey as the global standard for measuring passenger satisfaction.
ASQ is the only global airport survey based on measuring passengers’ satisfaction taken while they are at the airport. Some 600,000 passengers per year are interviewed prior to boarding their flight and asked to rate their satisfaction with the airport’s services.
In 2015, over half of the world's 7 billion travelers passed through an ASQ airport.
The government aims to make Incheon International Airport one of the five busiest airports in the world, in terms of international passenger traffic, and one of the world’s top 10 transfer airports by 2020.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Incheon International Airport Corporation recently unveiled plans to boost services by expanding the airport’s infrastructure to meet its goals.
Since opening in 2001, Incheon International Airport has grown to be the world’s number two airport in terms of managing international cargo and the world’s number eight airport in the traffic of international passengers.
However, the airport’s weaknesses have recently surfaced, including long lines before departure and upon arrival, as demand for air travel has surged. Delays in handling luggage have also been regarded as a downside.
With competitors in neighboring countries, the number of passengers transferring through Incheon International Airport slipped nearly six percent in 2014 after having posted annual growth of nearly eleven percent up until 2013.
The ministry and the airport corporation will seek to steadily liberalize air transport with China and expand direct flights to and from India in an effort to meet air travel demand from China and India.
They also plan to expand the number of airlines flying into and out of Incheon International Airport from the current 186 to 210 by 2020.
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