|
Incheon International Airport was chosen as the "Best Airport Worldwide" in the 2008 Airport Service Quality survey announced on Tuesday by Airports Council International. The survey, which assesses an airport's customer service, facilities, quality of operations, sanitary standards, customs clearance, proximity to metropolitan areas and other factors, is considered the "Nobel Prize" of the airports industry.
But this is not the first time. Since 2005, Incheon International Airport has maintained the top spot. It is the first global airport to be chosen as the top airport for four straight years since ACI launched the survey in 1993.
The Korean airport did not stand out from the beginning. It ranked sixth place in an ACI quality assessment conducted a year after it opened to travelers in 2001. The facilities were brand new, but its service was not good enough -- it ranked 17th in terms of its customs service and 23rd for its immigration operations.
The competitiveness of an airport's service quality is the result of the overall efforts of people working in its many departments. Incheon International Airport is staffed by around 35,000 workers employed by some 570 government agencies and private companies.
In late 2003, the airport launched a service enhancement committee composed of members of 10 different agencies, including Incheon International Airport Corporation, the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration, the Incheon Airport Customs and the Korea Immigration Service. They discussed what areas needed improvement and began to fix them one by one. As a result, processing time to enter Korea was shortened from 20 minutes and 30 seconds in 2005 to 13 minutes and 29 seconds in November of last year. Departure time was shortened from 29 minutes and 23 seconds in 2005 to 17 minutes and 58 seconds last year. Each year, the airport seems to shorten its processing time.
Although it saw a four-percent drop in the number of direct flight passengers last year, due to soaring crude prices and the economic slowdown, Incheon International Airport attracted 4.42 million transfer passengers, achieving a 15 percent rate of transfers. The airport's geographical advantage, efforts to provide better services, and variety of transfer routes all contributed to the achievement. It has become a place where employees from other airports come to learn. Last year, around 300 employees from airports in 20 different countries, including San Francisco International Airport and Kansai International Airport, visited Incheon International Airport to study it.
In the latest ACI evaluation, Singapore's Changi Airport came in at second place and Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok International Airport third.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
