Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) has proven that the old adage ‘service with a smile’ gets its rewards as it was recently presented with the Airports Council International (ACI) “Service Quality Assured” certification.
ACI is an association of world airports whose prime focus is to advance the interests of airports as well as to promote professional excellence across and in airport management and operations. The ACI Service Quality Assured Certification is based on annual results of overall satisfaction of international passengers. Only airports which have participated in all four quarters of the year and followed the sampling methodology are eligible for an award.
Abu Dhabi International Airport’s service quality management system was credited with having met industry best practices and was lauded for its commitment to continual improvement in the area of delivering quality of services to passengers.
Accepting the award at recent ceremony in the UK, Rudy Vercelli, CEO of ADAC said:
“We are extremely pleased to not only to be recognised for our quality services but to also be one of the first airports in the world to receive this certification. It clearly vindicates every member of our staff’s ongoing commitment and effort to maintaining the highest level of services at Abu Dhabi International Airport.”
The certification process is a natural extension to the quarterly surveys ACI conducts on 500 people at the airport and, having only introduced the process last year, Abu Dhabi International Airport becomes one of the first airports to adopt the latest protocols and becomes one of the first – worldwide – to be ACI “Service Quality Assured” certified.
In order to qualify as ACI “Assured”, a detailed 100-page document assesses six categories and 20 sub-criteria. The categories include Leadership, Customer Focus, People Management, Systems and Process Management, Business Partner relationships, and Measurement or Benchmarking for continual improvement.
Under a criterion in the People Management category for the encouragement and empowerment of staff Abu Dhabi International Airport excelled, with particular reference given to its Service Star Award Scheme.
Service Star Personality of the Year Award
The Service Star programme, having been run for frontline staff over the last 12 months is an airport scheme that seeks to incentivise and promote quality service on a monthly and annual format with rewards and promotions among the potential outcomes.
Seven nominees are shortlisted for the Service Personality of the Year Award, one from each of the airport’s main agencies. Nominees and the eventual winners are assessed by their peers and management based on their consistent and excellent customer service performances, in his or her role and the overall winner is then crowned as “Service Personality of the Year”.
Teresa Laude from Abu Dhabi Duty Free was the overall winner at this year’s awards and also took away AED 10,000 in prize money. Jerozina D’Costa from Abu Dhabi Airport Services and Khader Ali from Cleanco came second and third respectively and each collected a cheque for AED 5,000.
The four remaining agency representatives from Customs, the Police, Immigration, and Abu Dhabi Airports Company each received Outstanding Service Performance Awards and AED 2,000 each.
“Of course, it is important that airport be recognized for its efforts but this award is all about the hardworking and committed staff that genuinely look to create the highest quality of service environments across the airport, for all out customers, on a day to day basis - this is an award that everyone working in frontline services at the airport can be proud of,” added Vercelli.
