Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport, operated by Northern Capital Gateway LLC (NCG), won the prestigious Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award, as announced by Airports Council International (ACI) on March 9, 2020. Pulkovo was ranked Best Airport by Size and Region in the 15-25 million passengers per year category among European airports in 2019.

Leonid Sergeev, CEO of NCG noted:

"Rising in the ACI ASQ rating is a remarkable achievement for Pulkovo Airport's team. Outstanding service is one of our main priorities. Therefore, we are proud that travelers constantly note the high level of airport's comfort and service quality. Having implemented new measures for customer experience improvement in the key areas in 2019, we are now focused on enhancing the quality of all the service provided. We set even more ambitious goals for the future striving to enter the top three in the ACI's satisfaction rating."

Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World, said in her congratulatory letter to Pulkovo Airport:

"Your customers have spoken and recognized the successful efforts of your team in providing a superior customer experience. We seek to promote and publicize this recognition to thank you and your team for your excellent performance and to serve as incentive for others to make strides towards delivering excellent customer experience."

Throughout 2019, Pulkovo airport was ranked among the best European airports in terms of overall passenger satisfaction in ASQ quarterly surveys. In the third quarter of the year, Pulkovo became the leader of the ranking among airports in Europe.

In 2019, Pulkovo Airport implemented a number of measures focused on passenger service improvement. Intensive supervision plans for employees' performance, process management and terminal cleanliness were defined and implemented. A special training program "The point of attention" for front-line staff of Pulkovo Airport was created. The program lasts 3 months and consists of 4 modules based on principles of design thinking and updated standards of interaction with passengers. As part of improving the feedback system, NCG launched a hotline for passengers, which allows to contact directly the specialists of the quality department and functional units, depending on the topic of the question. In 2019, international business lounge was renovated to improve satisfaction of business class passengers. Additional retail areas were launched in the domestic departures zone.

The ACI ASQ survey is the world's leading airport customer experience measurement and benchmarking programme. The programme measures passengers' satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators in major areas such as airport access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage, retail, way finding, and overall satisfaction. The ranking is based on surveys for passengers in the participating airports, which use all the same survey questions.

Earlier, Pulkovo Airport became the winner of the ACI ASQ awards in the nominations "Best Improvement for Europe" in 2014 and "Best Airport in Europe" in the 5-15 million passengers per year category in 2015.

Contributed by Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport