Jaipur Airport wins the 'Best Airport in the World' award, Lucknow second

Airports in Jaipur and Lucknow which are managed by the Airports Authority of India, have won the first and second place of the 2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards in the category of 2 to 5 million passengers per annum.

The ASQ awards, organised by the Montreal-based Airports Council International, are the result of more than 55,000 in-depth passenger satisfactions surveys carried out last year at more than 300 airports across 80 countries.

"It's a pride moment that we have received Airports Council International's best airport award in Asia Pacific and the region. We are top in the world. We have taken care of all facilities related to passengers and workers. We have maintained high quality at arrival and departure areas," said B. K. Tailang, Airport director, Jaipur.

"The present position of having been declared as world's number two airport in the category of 2-5 million passengers has been possible because of cooperation of everybody. We have tried to add more facilities, basically shopping facilities, beautification and good ambience. The passenger facilitation activities like helping them in the checking process and then expediting the security clearance, everything has been taken care of," said Suresh Chandra Hota, Airport director, Lucknow.

Further, Jaipur Airport has also been rated as the best airport by 'Regions and Size' in the Asia Pacific region in the category of 2-5 million passengers per annum.

The Goa and Trivandrum airports are at 4th and 5th positions in the same category.

In the category of Airports upto 2 million passengers per annum, Airports Authority of India's Srinagar Airport has been rated as the second best airport in the World.

"This is really a great achievement. We have been working very hard to improve the customer facilities. Difference facilities available at the terminal as well as the city sight and the facilities given to the different airlines who are operating from different terminals. Our people have worked very hard and they have brought this laurel to the Airport authority to India," said R.K. Srivastava, Chairman, Airports Authority of India.

Airports Authority of India owns and maintains 125 airports comprising 95 operational airports in the country.

Efforts are high to improve infrastructure and facilities at all airports with the next expansion phase covering airports at Agartala, Guwahati, Chennai, Pune, Leh, Trichy, Ahmedabad and Patna.

"At present, only 11 airports are judged on 34 parameters and it is heartening to tell you and all our 11 airports have been ranked higher than the world average of 4:3 in the scale of 5, so this way the improvements are coming. We expect when the number of airports increases in this parameter so all other airports will qualify and become the best," Srivastava added.

The Airports Authority of India wants its airports to be commercially viable by attracting air travellers to shop, relax and use the best available facilities.

"Our services will improve. Earlier, we used to plan retail and commercial planning after the construction of a building. Now, we are planning it in advance so have commercial space in the building that the passenger gets attracted with retail and food and beverages items. It will help increase the spending per passenger at the airport. It will also increase our revenue and airport will become self sustained," said S. Raheja, Member (Planning), AAI.

The airport infrastructure, loaded with world-class facilities, is developing in the country as the demand is rising with more people travelling through domestic and international airports.