SA airports fly high in latest worldwide awards

Cape Town International is Africa’s best airport for the third year running.

And King Shaka International in Durban was named the continent’s best regional airport at the Skytrax Awards on Wednesday in Stockholm‚ Sweden.

The awards are the outcome of more than 14 million questionnaires completed by travellers of more than 100 nationalities at more than 550 airports worldwide.

The survey evaluated traveller experiences across 39 indicators including check-in‚ arrivals‚ transfers‚ shopping‚ security and immigration‚ through to departure at the gate. Cape Town International spokeswoman Deidre Davids said the latest award was a recognition of the standards the airport strove to maintain.

King Shaka International spokesman Colin Naidoo said: “The Skytrax award is a reflection of our conscious refining of our customer service and passenger experiences by implementing improvements based on what passengers tell us.”

International arrivals at Cape Town International went up by 13.85% over the end-of-year holiday season and international departures were 15.69% higher in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. King Shaka International domestic arrivals and departures were up 5.63% and 6.17% respectively in the fourth quarter.

King Shaka and the airport at George in the southern Cape excelled a few weeks ago in another passenger survey run by the Airports Council International.