KL International Airport (KLIA) has recently joined the world’s first and only Airport Customer Experience Accreditation (ACEA) programme by Airports Council International (ACI) as part of its commitment towards ensuring continuous service excellence.
ACI, the global organisation of airport authorities that unifies aviation industry practices, aims for the ACEA to better guide airports in customer experience management through five levels of accreditation. KLIA has achieved its first accreditation and joins other airports worldwide such as Abu Dhabi International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and Incheon International Airport which have also been accredited by the same programme, in a shared pursuit of customer experience excellence.
Managing Director of Malaysia Airports, Dato’ Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said, ”We are taking bold steps to change the way we bring about major improvements at the airport. Participating in this accreditation programme by ACI will be a long-term commitment for KLIA as we strive to provide our best in every aspect of operational processes and practices. We are happy to announce that KLIA will be moving ahead and levelling up in this programme to further ensure a seamless passenger experience.”
“Over the past few months, we have introduced and expedited new initiatives to meet the evolving needs of passengers. We hope to simplify our services for passengers and reignite the joy of travelling. We aspire to get KLIA back into the top tier rankings of the world’s best airports by creating the best experiences for passengers as per our brand promise of hosting joyful connections,” he added.
The ACI ACEA is the first and currently the only customer experience accreditation in the aviation industry which guides the airport ecosystem in becoming customer-centric and ultimately improving the overall airport experience. It focuses on eight different domains comprising customer understanding, strategy, measurement, operational improvement, governance, airport culture, service design or innovation, and airport community collaboration.
KLIA has been accredited for recognising and establishing customer experience as a priority which is communicated both internally and externally. This is executed by setting a fundamental structure through a thorough understanding of customer expectations, satisfaction and feedback. For the next level of accreditation, the airport management team will be engaging more with the public during on-ground events and sharing the importance of having a great airport culture and environment.
The ACI ACEA programme will continue to guide KLIA and the rest of the airports operated by Malaysia Airports in Malaysia which have been consistently recording passenger growth to date. For May 2023, the total passenger movements for operations in Malaysia were recorded at close to 6.8 million, an increase of 8% from 6.3 million in the preceding month.
The airports recorded 2.9 million international passenger movements and 3.8 million domestic passenger movements respectively. Overall, Malaysia’s performance contributed to almost 70% of the Group’s total global passenger movements at 9.9 million passengers last month.
Meanwhile, in Turkiye, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) surpassed the 3 million mark for the first time post-pandemic for total passenger movements in May 2023. International and domestic passenger movements were recorded at 1.6 million and 1.5 million passengers respectively.
The Ministry of Transport (MoT) and Malaysia Airports (MAHB) have jointly announced that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang will be rebranded from KLIA to Terminal 1. A similar arrangement will also be implemented on KLIA2 which will soon be renamed to Terminal 2. However, neither MoT nor MAHB has revealed when exactly the rebranding exercise will take place.
