This year’s Skytrax World Airport Awards have been announced and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport and Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport have bagged awards.
The Delhi airport has been adjudged the ‘Best Airport in India and Central Asia’ and Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has been adjudged as the ‘Best Regional Airport in India and Central Asia’. The Hyderabad airport’s ranking has progressed from the 71st position in 2020 to 64th position in 2021 among the World’s Top 100 Airports.
Apart from this award, Hyderabad’s international airport has also bagged the third rank in the ‘Cleanest Airport in India and Central Asia’ category, fourth rank in the ‘Best Airport Staff in India and Central Asia’ category and sixth rank in the ‘Best Regional Airports in Asia’ category. Commenting on the achievement, Pradeep Panicker, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited said, “With immense pleasure we would like to dedicate this award to all the airport staff, stakeholders and partners working at Hyderabad airport, who have done a commendable job with unwavering commitment during the pandemic.”
“We believe that our innovative and tech-enabled initiatives during the pandemic and crisis preparedness has led to this achievement. This recognition motivates us to further raise the bar and reinforce our commitment to provide a safe and seamless experience to all our passengers,” he added.
The Delhi airport has also improved its overall ranking, moving from number 50 in 2020 to number 45 in the 2021 World’s Top 50 Airport league. According to GMR, this achievement makes Delhi airport the first Indian airport to achieve this feat. The Delhi airport has also been bestowed with the ‘COVID-19 Airport Excellence Award’ for providing exemplary safety protocols during the global pandemic, making it the only airport in India to be ascribed in this category, the company said.
The Skytrax World Airport Awards are the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry, voted by customers in the largest, annual global airport customer satisfaction survey. They are regarded as the quality benchmark for the world airport industry, assessing customer service and facilities across over 550 airports. The survey and awards are independent of any airport control or inputs. The awards are based on the World Airport Survey questionnaires completed by over 100 nationalities of airport customers during a six-month survey period. The survey evaluated the customer experience across airport service and product key performance indicators — from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration through to departure at the gate.