King Shaka, Cape Town, OR Tambo airports reign supreme in Africa

Although they've been rendered useless by the lockdown, South Africa’s airports have taken their place among the best in the world.

Cape Town International has been named best airport in Africa and King Shaka International in Durban best regional airport on the continent.

In fact, South Africa’s top three airports - Cape Town, King Shaka and OR Tambo International in Johannesburg - stood head and shoulders above the rest of the African competition.

Cape Town, which receives 10-million passengers a year, came in at 23rd internationally, beating airports like Hamburg, Dubai and Sydney in the 2020 Skytrax World Airport Awards.

It was Cape Town International’s fifth year as best African airport, although it dropped one place overall from last year.

King Shaka International was 32nd, a three-position drop from last year, and Johannesburg 36th, also a drop of three places.

According to Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), King Shaka International, which turned 10 on May 1 and serves between 5 and 10 million passengers a year, also won for the best airport staff in Africa.

“This is the tenth time that the airport has secured this accolade, the second consecutive year and the third time in four years that has come out on top in the service category,” read an Acsa statement congratulating the staff from the various airports on Monday.

King Shaka also won best airport in the world serving 5 to 10 million passengers, a category for smaller airports. 

Cape Town International was runner-up in the staff service category.

“The World Airport Awards are the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry, voted by customers in the largest, annual global airport customer satisfaction survey,” read the statement.

The award winners were announced remotely via YouTube on Monday morning.

In a video recording Cape Town International general manager Deon Cloete dedicated the award to his staff.

“We are mighty pleased with this award. This award is dedicated to all the good folks who work everyday at Cape Town International Airport to make sure that we continue to deliver a value proposition of service excellence to our customers and to all of our clients,” he said.

Acsa CEO Mpumi Mpofu said the awards showed that Acsa had the “right approach and the right staff” to deliver a good service, despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These accolades affirm the importance we place on quality across every dimension of the passenger’s airport experience. We are delighted to be recognised and especially proud that the awards reflect the continuing dedication and efforts of airport staff,” he said.

“We are still in the early stages of what is going to be an exceptionally challenging time for the entire value chain in the aviation sector. These awards show that as a company we have the right approach and the right staff to deliver a safe and secure airport experience in the months ahead,” said Mpofu.

According to Acsa, the awards are regarded as the quality benchmark for the world airport industry, assessing customer service at over 550 airports around the world.

The awards are based on the results of the World Airport Survey, which is completed by airport customers of more than 100 nationalities over six months.