KLIA Wins World’s Best Airport Title for Third Consecutive Year

By Kamarul Yunus

SHANGHAI: THE KL International Airport has won the coveted World’s Best Airport title (under the 15-25 million passengers per annum category) in the Airport Council International’s (ACI) Airport Services Quality Awards 2007, for the third consecutive year.

“It is no mean feat. We have to work hard for it as we have to face strong competitors, especially in this part of the world. We could not have achieved it if not for the support of all agencies operating in the airport,” Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Seri Bashir Ahmad said.

Speaking to Malaysian journalists covering the two-day ACI customer services and facilitation conference and Trinity Business forum here yesterday, Bashir said this would be KLIA’s last year to compete in the 15-25 million passenger per annum category.

With its expansion plans, the airport will move into the bigger 25-40 million category this year.

“It will be harder as we may compete with the best airports in the world. At the moment, we have to try to benchmark ourselves to keep on par with Incheon Airport of South Korea. Incheon is the current number one airport in this category. Other contenders would probably be Hong Kong and Singapore,” he said.

KLIA also improved its ranking for Best Airport Worldwide and Best Airport Asia Pacific by coming in second.

Singapore’s Changi Airport was third. The win coincides with Malaysia Airports’ 10th anniversary this year.

“We owe this remarkable feat to the collective efforts and commitment of all government agencies, business partners and associates at KLIA for constantly providing unrivalled passenger connectivity, comfort and convenience to our customers,” he added.

Ninety airports worldwide participated in the survey for 2007, which was conducted by benchmarking airports’ performance on service quality, facilities and passenger feedback.

Malaysia Airports manages and operates 39 airports in Malaysia, out of which five are international and 16 domestic airports.

The national airport operator also manages and operates 16 domestic and 18 short take-off and landing ports. It also has operations in Kazakhstan, India and Turkey.

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