BENGALURU: The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has won the SKTRAX Award 2017 for being 'the best regional airport in India and central Asia'. Also known as the passenger choice award, the World Airport Awards are based on 13.82 million survey questionnaires from July 2016 to February 2017, covering 550 airports around the world.
The KIA had been previously recognized as the Best Airport in India by SKYTRAX in 2011 and the Best Regional Airport in Central Asia in 2015.
Regional airports refer to those operating short int ernational and domestic flights, rather than intercontinental schedules.
The world awards evaluated traveller experience across 39 key performance indicators. A key directive was for customers to make their own personal choices and parameters on which airport they considered to be the best. The award was announced at the World Airport Awards, held at the Passenger Terminal EXPO in Amster d am, Netherlands, on Tuesday.
Sanjay Reddy, managing director, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), said over the last year they had innovated and introduced many initiatives that focused on simplifying passenger travel to offer passengers an easy experience at the airport.
KIA is the busiest airport in southern India and the third largest in the country. It caters to over 22 million passengers annually and is growing at 22.5% year-on-year.
The World Airport Awards are a global benchmark for airport excellence.