Johan Schölvinck, InterVISTAS Vice President Commercial is this year’s WBP Recognition Award winner.
Athens, 22 June 2016: The 12th Annual ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards were announced last night during the Gala Dinner of the 26th ACI EUROPE General Assembly, Congress & Exhibition, hosted by Athens International Airport.
This years’ judging panel for the ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards was drawn from a well-respected group of independent experts including EUROCONTROL, European Commission, European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), European Travel Commission (ETC) and FlightGlobal. ACI EUROPE counts over 500 airports in 45 European countries among its membership and this year’s competition saw a high level of entries in the competition in each category.
The Awards* cover 4 traffic categories of airport and aims to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, facilities, retail, security, community relations and environmental awareness and operations. There is a separate award devoted specifically to airports’ environmental efforts.
The awards were presented to the winning airports by Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE, Angela Gittens, Director General ACI World, Salvatore Sciacchitano, Executive Secretary, ECAC, Filip Cornelis, Acting Director, Aviation and International Transport Affairs, European Commission, Philippe Merlo, Director ATM EUROCONTROL and Catherine Mayer, Vice-President SITA.
The first award, recognising airports in the ‘under 5 million passenger’ category, went to Keflavik Airport. The judges valued Keflavik Airport’s investments in most of the areas to improve its operations and enhance the passenger experience, its involvement with the local community and stakeholders as well as its environmental policy.
London City Airport was highly commended in the ‘under 5 million passenger’ category. The airport was recognised for the expansion and improvement of its facilities and for its focus on the passenger.
The winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Glasgow Airport. The airport won praise from the judges for its strong focus on performance, its facilities upgrade and greatly improved passenger experience through, for instance, the introduction of a real-time feedback model and the sharing of customer feedback on a weekly basis.
The highly commended airport in the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Naples Airport. The judges noted positively its increased connectivity and its active strategy to promote Naples as a tourist destination.
This year’s award in the ‘10-25 million passenger’ category went to Brussels Airport on the basis of its key investment in the Connector including the world’s first remote screening of cabin baggage on a large scale, which has improved the passenger experience (e.g. reduced walking distances, more clarity on the way to take, reduced waiting times).
The highly commended airport for the Accessible Airport Award was Larnaca Airport for the positive travelling experience it gives to people with disabilities as well as for its great efforts to comply with accessibility standards.
This year’s WBP Recognition Award went to Johan Schölvinck, Vice-President Commercial InterVISTAS, Consultant for NACO and Vice-Chair of the ACI EUROPE Commercial Forum, in recognition of his outstanding airport industry expertise and strong commitment to the ACI EUROPE Commercial Forum’s Business Transformation Task Force. The judges also underlined Johan’s interpersonal skills and his ability to lead and inspire members of the ACI EUROPE Commercial Forum to explore new areas of interest, to bring added value to the commercial topics and to ensure all work initiatives are successfully completed.
InterVISTAS’ Johan Schölvinck and SITA’s Catherine Mayer
Finally, ACI EUROPE created a special Leader of the Year Award category this year. The recipient of the award was Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, for his extraordinary leadership and courage together with his remarkable decisiveness and wisdom in managing the aftermath of the terrorist attack at Brussels Airport on 22 March. This Award was presented by Augustin de Romanet, President of ACI EUROPE and President & CEO Aéroports S.A.- Groupe ADP.
The 27th ACI EUROPE General Assembly, Congress & Exhibition will be hosted by Groupe ADP – Paris Aéroport and will take place in Paris on 14-16 June 2016.