Falling standards: Mumbai airport still at bottom of top five, says survey

In an indication of deteriorating passengers’ service standards, the Mumbai airport continues to be at the bottom of the table among top 5 international airports handling 25 to 40 million passengers in a year, according to an international passengers’ feedback audit.

In an indication of deteriorating passengers’ service standards, the Mumbai airport continues to be at the bottom of the table among top 5 international airports handling 25 to 40 million passengers in a year, according to an international passengers’ feedback audit.

The city airport was on the bottom of the table even last year even as Delhi airport has improved its position from number two to top the category according to the Airport Service Quality award for 2014 given by the Airports Council International (ACI), an association of global airports.

The ACI survey, which covers 250 airports in the world, gauges them on crucial service areas such as access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage providers.

At least 1,400 passengers randomly selected from each airport are asked to fill questionnaires about their transit experience. This process is done at least 350 times in a period of three months. About 5.50 lakh fliers are surveyed across the globe in the course of the survey.

“We started off with a vision to be among the best airports in the world, and this award is validation of the fact that our efforts towards establishing world-class service quality are headed in the right direction,” said RK Jain, chief executive officer with the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).

The MIAL airport spokesperson however, said that the airport’s rating in 2014 was better than the previous year. “From 4.66 (on a scale of 5) our rating went up to 4.8,” said the spokesperson adding that the new international terminal T2 had enhanced passengers’ experience.

Incidentally, the Mumbai airport had done better in the survey two years ago. It stood third in the same category in 2012 and 2011.

The ACI also recognizes airports in three other categories – region, improvement levels and the small airport.

In 2014 Seoul’s Incheon airport was best airport in the Asia Pacific region. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport is the only Indian airport to feature on this list. The Kolkata airport bagged the first place in the category for airports showing best improvement.