Corvera Airport Murcia has been named as one of an elite group of airports around the world adopting the best COVID-19 hygiene measures. The prestigious Airport Service Quality award is presented by Airports Council International, an association of international airports whose key objective is to promote professional excellence in airport management and operations by fostering cooperation among airports, world aviation organisations and business partners. It aims to make “a significant contribution to providing the traveling public with an air transport system that is safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible”.
The ASQ is a globally established benchmarking programme that measures passengers’ satisfaction while they are travelling through an airport, providing research tools and management information to help airports better understand passengers’ views and what they want from an airport’s products and services.
Recognised as one of the industry’s highest accolades, the annual awards are “an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of airports worldwide to continuously improving the passenger experience”.
According to the ACI, “The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on global passenger traffic in 2020, as well as changing customer perceptions and expectations of the airport experience. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, airports managed to collect ASQ surveys from their customers throughout the year.
“Based on new hygiene-related questions added to the survey questionnaire, ACI has introduced a new award – ‘Best Hygiene Measures by Region’ – of which there are 33 inaugural winners. This award provided airports with a reliable method of gauging customer response to new health measures and recognises airports’ success in responding to the intense focus on hygiene.”
In addition to Corvera Airport Murcia, five other Spanish airports also received ASQ awards for their hygiene measures: Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén, Menorca, Seve Ballesteros-Santander, Pamplona and Alicante-Elche.
Measures implemented in the Aena network throughout Spain are framed within an Operational Recovery Plan which, since April 2020, has applied recommendations by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Visitors to the Murcia region are being offered free travel insurance coverage for health, transport and accommodation costs incurred if they become infected with COVID-19 during their holidays.