Daily World Report - Airports Council International

Daily World ReportWORLD ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY / SPECIAL EDITIONACI World 2007 finished off with a Gala Dinner held at the Buenos Aires Sheraton, featuring tango dancers, live bands and dancing until two in themorning! It was also the occaision to perfom the traditional handover of the ACI clock between hosts of the world conference. Ernesto Gutierrez ofAA2000 passed the magnificent timepiece on to Thomas Kinton of Massport - the hosts of ACI World 2008 in Boston, United States. Pictures from theGala Dinner will be available on the ACI website early next week.Highlights from THE SECOND DAY OF THE 2007 CONFERENCE:• New ASQ programme launched• Celebrating the merger of the ACI Asia and Pacific Regions• Gala DinnerA line up of top-quality speakers• Speaking on the the Outlook for the Latin America-Caribbean regionwere Carlos Criado (Commercial Director of Aeroportuario del Pacifico)and Enrique Urioste (President, Airport Division of Duty Free Americas).• In a State of the Industry address, Bijan Visigh PhD from Embry RiddleAeronautical University spoke of the challenges and opportunities inthe sphere of privatisation and airport investment• A session on Managing Growth was presented by Ben deCosta fromHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.• The conference precedings finished with a panel session moderatedby Claudia Vivanco of Lima Airport Partners and Dr Kostas Iatrou editorof AirTransportNews. The Panel included: Jaan Albrecht, CEO of theStar Alliance; Nancy Graham from ICAO; Catherine Mayer of SITA;Alexander ter Kuile of CANSO; Miguel Southwell from Miami Airport;Enrique Urioste from Duty Free AmericasThe Panel Session.Speeches and presentations will be available shortly through the ACIwebsite: www.aci.aero

Passenger service standards high on the agenda for airportsOn Wednesday at the ACI World Assembly in Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur International Airport was the first to bepresented an Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Assured certificate following a successful audit of its airport passengerservice quality management system. In presenting the certification, Airports Council International Director General RobertJ Aaronson said, “We are confident that customer service remains a high priority for airports and are encouraged thatover 100 airports – including some of the world’s busiest – are already part of the ASQ programme.“This new extension of ASQ willprovide real incentive for thoseairports committed to best practice service quality managementtechniques. We are proud to be able to present Kuala Lumpurwith the first ASQ Assured certificate in the world and believethat this will be an opportunity taken up by a great number ofairports.”Airports Council International has established customer serviceas a priority area to focus on and believes that the qualityof service an airport provides to its passengers is integral tothe enjoyment of travelling. In order for airports to effectivelyunderstand passenger needs and manage and raise customerservice levels, for the last two years ACI has provided the ASQprogramme to its members. ASQ is the premier benchmarkingtool for airports wishing to measure and commit to improvingcustomer service.Now, in a further development of the already existing ASQSurvey programme, which assesses passenger perceptionsof the service they get at an airport, ACI has announced theestablishment of ASQ Assured. This new programme is acertification scheme, specifically designed and operated forairports by ACI, which measures and endorses the servicequality management systems in place at an airport.ACI Director General, Robert J Aaronson presents Malaysia Airports’ Dato Bashirwith the very first ASQ Assured certificate.“As airports grow more competitive and the industry triesto bring back some of the enjoyment of travelling, thesetools can really help in raising service levels. It is part ofACI’s encouragement to the industry to develop an improvedexperience at airports.”ASQ Assured certifies the commitment of the airport to continual improvement in the quality of services to passengers. It benchmarks an airport’spassenger service quality management system and processes to airport industry best practice. The ASQ Assured scheme uses a self assessmentapproach followed by an ACI on-site audit. “With time, the ACI Service Quality Assured logo will be recognised as a hallmark of airport service qualityexcellence.” For more information, please see www.airportservicequality.aeroACI Asia-Pacificnow officiallymerged!A celebration was heldon Tuesday followingthe ACI World AnnualAssembly to recognisethe official merging ofthe ACI Asia and Pacificregions into one. ACIAsia-Pacific is now thelargest and most diverseACI region.