The Airports Council International (ACI), the voice of airports around the world, has recognised Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for its excellence in customer service.

JKIA has been named the 5th best airport in Africa in the prestigious 2014 ACI Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards. This recognition is a testament to the airport’s ongoing commitment to service excellence.

In what is considered the aviation industry’s most comprehensive passenger service benchmarking program, the ACI ASQ Survey captures passengers’ experience at all airport passenger contact points at more than 300 airports worldwide.

ACI ASQ has industry recognition as a world-class benchmarking program that aims to allow airports to plan improvements and benchmark their customer services against other airports.

The recognition comes months after the airport’s new Terminal 1A was opened for use. The terminal has 3 floors and includes duty-free shops, a food court, customer lounges and a mini market among other facilities. Terminal 1A has improved customer experience at JKIA besides guaranteeing operational efficiency, boosting security and improving the quality of service to airport users.

Kenya Airports Authority’s Managing Director, Ms Lucy Mbugua noted that the recognition was timely; coming at a time that JKIA is undergoing major upgrading and modernisation works set to stamp its position as a regional hub.

“The stature of JKIA has grown significantly in recent years with the increased passengers and cargo traffic into and out of the facility. We expect even further growth going forward as more capacity is unlocked by ongoing works which will improve service level, enhance security and control access to meet international standards.  This will enable us to maximise on the advantage of the airport’s strategic location to position it as the premier aviation hub of Africa,” Ms Mbugua added.

On-going works at JKIA include the construction of Terminal 2 which is expected to be opened at the end of this February. The new prefab terminal has the capacity to handle 2.5 million passengers annually and will cater for both international and domestic departures and arrivals.

The additional capacity injected by the new terminals brings the capacity of JKIA to 7.5 million passengers annually. JKIA at the moment handles an estimated 6.5 million passengers annually. The completion of Terminal 2 is a huge step forward in the concerted efforts made to expand and modernise JKIA.