HOT | Notes
ASIA’S BEST
AIRPORTS 2013
SINGAPORE – Agoda.com, Asia’s leading
hotel booking site and part of Nasdaqlisted Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has
released a list of Asia’s best airports as
ranked by customers who flew into capital
cities.
Airports are fascinating structures, and
require a level of planning and design not
unlike a small city. In this regard, a customer’s perception of whether an airport
is “good” or not depends on many factors:
signage, food selection, facilities for the disabled, ease of movement, rest options and
even how many bathrooms there are.
Failure to plan correctly can result in expensive delays, such as when Heathrow Airport’s
new Terminal 5 opened in 2008 and had to
content with dozens of cancelled flights and
thousands of stranded passengers on its first
day. Similarly, Denver Airport’s cutting-edge
baggage system turned out to be a failure,
42 • HOTELIER INDONESIA | SEPTEMBER 2013
costing the airport USD $1 million per
month in maintenance costs until it was
ultimately abandoned.
When it comes to airports, details matter.
For the survey, Agoda chose 15 major Asian
capitals: Bangkok, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City,
Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila,
New Delhi, Phnom Penh, Seoul, Singapore,
Taipei, Tokyo, Vientiane and Yangon.
Travelers to these airports were asked to
give it an overall rating on a scale of 1 (poor)
to 5 (excellent).
Unsurprisingly, Singapore’s Changi Airport
came in first, with an overall rating of 4.37.
Known for its hyper-efficiency and consistent investments in improvement and
upgrade, it features in the top 3 of nearly
every airport ranking list in the world. In
2012 Changi handled 51 million passengers. Airport Fact: For every $10 you spend
in the airport you can claim a ride on the
four-story indoor slide.
It won’t speed up your plane, but it makes
waiting a bit less boring.Second spot with a
rating of 4.13 was Hong Kong International
Airport which, similarly to Changi, usually
places very high on any ranking list due to
its convenient transit links and high-tech
design on a huge chunk of reclaimed land
in the South China Sea. In 2012 Hong
Kong Airport handled 56 million passengers. Airport Fact: The airport employs over
65,000 people!
Rounding out the top three is Seoul’s
Incheon International Airport with a score
of 4.01, which handled 39 million passengers in 2012. Interestingly, the airport holds
a record that is now unbreakable – it was
named the Best Airport Worldwide by the
Airports Council International for a record
7 years (2005-2011), and the award was
discontinued after their final win. Airport
Fact: Long layover? No problem!
www.hotelier-indonesia.com