Mangalore among top 10 small airports in country

Bhubaneswar and Varanasi airports have pipped others in the country in earning the love of fliers.

According to a Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) between January and June this year in 52 small airports having annual passenger load of less than 15 lakh, 14 airports, including Mangalore, share space in the Top 10. Hubli airport is ranked 19th. Of the 14, six are in the north, five in the south, two in the east and one in the west.

The airports were evaluated on 33 parameters, including availability of baggage trolleys, parking facility, waiting time in check-in queue, waiting time for security clearance, cleanliness, speed of baggage service, and ambience of the airport.

“The survey is being conducted 1995-96 onwards, from the time of the inception of AAI. However, in the revised format, only three rounds have been undertaken,” said a senior AAI official.

As for major airports, which handle traffic of more than 15 lakh, they are being surveyed by the Airports Council International under its Airport Service Quality programme, as this is a mandatory as per AERA guidelines. Except for internet access and speed of baggage delivery, where it scored 3.84 and 3.99 respectively, the Bhubaneswar airport had scored above 4 in a scale of 5 in all the other 31 parameters. The Varanasi airport managed to get above-4 in all 33 aspects.

Bhubaneswar and Varanasi scored a cumulative total of 4.68 while Mangalore, tied with Srinagar and Port Blair, scored 4.25 to take the ninth position. Hubli scored 4.05.
In the Mangalore airport, cleanliness got the highest points of 4.69, followed by cleanliness in washrooms (4.68), availability of washrooms (4.54) and comfort of waiting areas (4.51). On the downside, the most problematic areas, according to passengers, were the speed of baggage delivery (3.79) and availability of eateries and restuarants (3.83) in the Mangalore airport.

Lack of shopping facilities was a problem at the Hubli airport, with fliers giving it just 3.31 out of 5 in this category. Another problem area was the walking distance inside the terminal (3.76). Like Mangalore, Hubli's highlight was the cleanliness in washrooms (4.43), followed by less waiting time for check-in queues (4.34).

n Bhubaneswar 4.68
n Varanasi 4.68
n Chandigarh 4.65
n Trichy 4.64
n Jodhpur 4.68
n Udaipur 4.48
n Bhopal 4.46
n Madurai 4.45
n Tirupati 4.40
n Coimbatore 4.31
n Srinagar 4.25
n Mangalore 4.25
n Port Blair 4.25
n Bhavnagar 4.23