16 March 2021
The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has been ranked as one of the world’s Top 10 airports in the latest global Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey by Airports Council International (ACI).
KLIA scored 4.98 points out of five for the category of over 40 million passengers per annum (mppa) in 2020.
This was a significant improvement over 2019 when KLIA was ranked 17th with a score of 4.76 points.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) attributed the success to KLIA’s continuous effort in carrying out improvement initiatives despite being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the passenger traffic remained low due to prolonged domestic and international travel restrictions with only 1.6 million passenger traffic recorded in February for the group, the international airport still forged ahead with mission critical projects.
Among them are the washroom refurbishment, formation of the operational excellence teams that identified and designed improvement initiatives and the introduction of the Exceptional People Practice Playbook, a dual language manual to guide its front liners in their interaction with passengers.
MAHB group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said the achievement further encouraged them to continue with their pursuit for excellence.
“As a global airport operator, we are driven by the passengers’ confidence and satisfaction in our facilities and services.
“At KLIA, we are prepared to safely welcome passengers with a heightened experience as air travel gradually recovers.
“This year, passengers can look forward to an improved journey including shorter wait times and facial recognition technology that are part of our Airports 4.0 digital transformation, ” he said in a statement, adding that the group recently announced that it would be introducing private health safety screening services for passengers to enjoy faster clearance upon arrival.
MAHB hoped to restore passenger confidence with the Covid-19 swab test swiftly done within comfortable surroundings.
Local passenger movements for MAHB’s network of 39 airports continued to be impacted by the re-imposition of travel restrictions and movement control orders due to the resurgence of cases.
Meanwhile in Turkey, the group’s Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG) managed to sustain 1.3 million passenger movements for two consecutive months.
ISG continued to be the majority contributor to the total 1.6 million passenger movements for MAHB in February,
Mohd Shukrie said the group remained optimistic on the resiliency of the demand in air travel.
“We have seen strong revival when travel restrictions were lifted in previous times, and for that, we will continue to enhance our offerings. Staying cognisant with the evolving demands of passengers and the aviation industry will help us stay ahead of the competition as we aim to be in the top five airports this year, ” he said.
Source: thestar.com.my
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