Mumbai airport ranked third for 'service quality'

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai, has been adjudged among the top three performing airports of last year in the airport service quality survey, by the Airport Council International (ACI), an official said here Thursday.

While the Indira Gandi International Airport  at New Delhi has been ranked the first in India and the second best globally, Mumbai's CSIA ranks the third best airport globally, and has emerged the second best in India in the 25-40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category of ACI.

The survey was conducted at 180 airports worldwide for the ACI Airport Service Quality Awards(ASQ), 2011, the CSIA official said.

Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (MIAL) managing director G. V. Sanjay Reddy, commenting on the CSIA securing the top honours, said, it is "a reaffirmation of our vision to transform the CSIA into one of the best airports in the world."

"Last year, we received this award in the 15-25 MPPA category and again this year in the 25-40 MPPA category. This further reinforces MIAL's efforts in improving the service quality at CSIA, which has been widely recognized by passengers, on an ongoing basis over the years," Reddy said.

ACI, an autonomous and independent body, carried out the ASQ passenger survey by measuring customer feedback on a range of service delivery parameters, that track the customer experience at an airport from the moment of arrival to the departure gate.

Analysis of this "real-time" data, recorded on the day of travel, serves as a guide for better aligning service provision with customer expectations.

By benchmarking an airport with other similar airports, ASQ enables airports to see where they stand in competition with their peers, and in turn, helps them prioritize improvement projects and validate their investments in new facilities and services.

CSIA catered to 29.10 million passengers between April 2010-March 2011, compared to 25.6 million passengers during the same period the previous year, a healthy growth of around four million passengers in one year.

MIAL is a joint venture between the GVK-led consortium and Airports Authority of India, with a mandate to modernize, upgrade and expand the existing CSIA.