Hong Kong International airport wins World Airport Awards

Nicole Mezzasalma

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Seoul Incheon and Singapore Changi tie for second place in passenger awards

A worldwide passenger survey by aviation research company Skytrax has hailed Hong Kong International airport as the best in the world. Asia dominated the podium, with a second-place tie between Seoul Incheon and Singapore Changi airports. The survey was based on more than 7.8m detailed passenger surveys completed between August 2006 and July 2007, covering more than 170 airports throughout the world.

Final passenger judging covers over 40 categories of product and service quality, including shopping and dining options. The air traveller survey is conducted annually and culminates in the announcement of the World Airport Awards.

Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said: "This year's study proved to be the closest fought traveller survey we have ever conducted. When the interviews closed and data analysis was run, we thought we had a tie for first place among the top three airports. With the scale of survey interviews for this year, such a result seemed almost impossible. After an extended period of result checks, Hong Kong emerged as the overall winner, with second position shared jointly by Seoul Incheon and Singapore Changi."

He added: "Hong Kong has been a frequent, former winner of the Best Airport title, and their return to the top this year is testament to the quality of service being delivered across their front-line staff areas, together with the more functional aspects of an airport that depend upon delivering efficiency and consistency.”

In Europe, Munich remains the passengers' favourite airport, taking Best Airport Europe title and ranked fourth in the world. Zurich was another upward mover, reaching second place in Europe and fifth globally. Vancouver was named Best Airport North America, and in ninth place worldwide, is the only North American airport to feature in the top 10.

Sydney International airport has been named the best airport in the Australia/Pacific region, but it didn’t make the world’s top 10. CEO Russell Balding said: “This is great recognition for the team at Sydney airport, and it shows that the money and effort that is being invested in upgrading our facilities and improving customer service is being appreciated by travellers.”

Balding added that a A$150m ($126.5m) expansion and refurbishment of terminal one will be the first significant upgrade of T1’s facilities since the 2000 Olympics. The A$20m ($16.8m) redevelopment of T2, with a new food court and expanded retail component, was completed in April.

Complete survey results: