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The quality of passenger service is presently one of the fundamental pillars on which the airport industry is erected, and a factor that has gained significant relevance due to the COVID-19 health crisis, which has to do with the way in which airports are taking care of the health of their passengers, as well as of their collaborators.

The Mariscal Sucre International Airport has renewed the Airport Customer Experience Accreditation: level 3.

Level 3 in the Airport Customer Experience Accreditation means that Corporación Quiport, as the entity responsible for managing the airport, meets four key conditions:

• Incorporates customer service policies into your overall strategy.
• Knows the profile of its passengers.
• Measures their level of satisfaction.
• Executes improvements and new services considering the real needs of passengers.

“The pandemic has not been an obstacle to continue working to provide our passengers with the best experience at the Quito airport. Knowing what passengers expect from the airport service and measuring their level of satisfaction allows us to plan much more efficiently and guarantee that our efforts will meet their objectives. We have a firm conviction that the success of our work at the Quito airport depends, to a great extent, on working with our passengers in mind,” explained Ramón Miró, president and CEO of Corporación Quiport.

Currently there are only two airports in the world that have reached level 3: Quito and Hong Kong. Incheon airport, in South Korea, is the sole level 4 certification holder in the world.

Quito airport received this accreditation for the first time in August 2020 and the present renewal will be valid until September 2022.

After an exhaustive evaluation, ACI considers not only that Mariscal Sucre airport complies with all sanitary recommendations, but has also demonstrated an important capacity to adapt biosecurity measures and protocols to the new characteristics of the pandemic to offer increased protection.

Ramón Miró, Quiport's chief executive, reiterated that this accreditation is very significant for the reactivation of air transport in the country. “We are aware that hygiene and health are two issues that we cannot neglect and that should be part of our strategy in the medium and long term. Air transport is one of the most regulated activities in the world and that has generated in us a culture of permanent self-evaluation. I congratulate the entire Quiport staff that has made it possible for us to have renewed the Airport Sanitary Accreditation until 2022”, he remarked.

The aspects evaluated in the program include cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing (when feasible and practical), protection of airport personnel, physical distribution, communication with passengers and passenger facilities.

All passenger areas and processes are considered, including access to the terminal, check-in areas, security control, boarding gates, lounges, retail stores, food and beverage outlets, boarding bridges, escalators and elevators, immigration control areas and facilities (in collaboration with authorities), baggage drop-off area and departure from the arrivals area.

Corporación Quiport will carry out preventive maintenance work on the runway and on the A18 taxiway at Quito International Airport in the months of September and October to keep the airport infrastructure in optimal conditions.

As such, airport operations will be suspended on the following Saturdays at the following time frames:

• September 18, from 02:30 to 14:30.
• September 25, from 02:30 to 14:30.
• October 02, 02:30 to 14:30.

The airlines operating at the Quito airport have already been notified in advance so that they can adequately organize their flights and inform their passengers about itinerary changes. In case of requiring information about changes in itineraries and available flights, passengers should contact their respective airline.

The dates and times chosen for these works guarantee a minimum impact to the airport operation – less than 5% of weekly flights – since these time slots register the least amount of flights.

• The Quito airport ascends six places compared to its 2020 ranking and classifies as 40th worldwide.
• The airport received additional awards such as the Cleanest Airport in South America, which is especially important in the current circumstances marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport was designated as the Best Airport in South America by Skytrax, the world’s main organization that evaluates the service provided by airports and airlines internationally. The British organization published the results of the World Airport Awards 2021 in which the Quito airport achieved for the first time the award as Best Airport in South America in the absolute regional ranking over airports the likes of Bogotá, Lima, Guayaquil, Santiago, Río de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. In the world ranking of airports, Quito airport improved 6 positions and was ranked 40.

In addition to this great achievement is the renewal, for the sixth consecutive year, of the Best Regional Airport in South America award, a category that only includes airports whose main connectivity is within the same region. Furthermore, the city's airport was the winner as the Cleanest Airport in South America and accomplished the award for Best Airport in the World in the category of less than two million passengers.

The World Airport Awards began in 1999, when Skytrax launched its first global airport user satisfaction survey. The awards are considered quality benchmarks for airports around the world, where customer service and facilities at more than 500 airports are evaluated.

Skytrax's annual survey of airport users was conducted from August 2020 to July 2021 in airports around the world, where many travelers voted for what they consider to be the best airport based on their pre-pandemic travel experiences, while others users voted according to their airport experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full award categories can be found at https://www.worldairportawards.com/award-winners-2021/

Ramón Miró, president and CEO of Corporación Quiport, the company that operates and manages Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport, recalled that this award belongs to all airport companies and institutions, as well as to the six thousand employees who make the Quito airport. “It is an honor to lead this great team that has been doing an exceptional job before and during the tough challenge posed by the pandemic. All of our workers, as well as our strategic partners, have managed to rise to the occasion and have overcome the problems and difficulties to keep the Quito airport at the top. We are all grateful for their great teamwork,” he said.

Sandro Ruiz, general manager of the Metropolitan Public Airport Services Company (EPMSA), pointed out that “this recognition once again demonstrates the commitment of Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport to continue maintaining the level of service and biosecurity in the face of to the pandemic that plagues the world. The commitment of our concessionaire, Quiport, is to continue raising the levels in its quality of service and in all areas that today are taken as measurement indicators to achieve these recognitions that place us in the forefront of the industry, which is very important to promote tourism to and from Ecuador. The work of the Municipality has been to collaborate transparently in the execution to total satisfaction of the concession contract, contributing from the public sector, in all the processes that are necessary for the development of the air terminal. With the current commitment, we will continue working in concert to continue obtaining new achievements for the city and the country ”.