Air travellers who participated in a SkyTrax survey determined that Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is the best airport in North America for the third consecutive year and the best airport in the world that handles between 10 million and 20 million passengers.
Overall, Vancouver’s airport ranked ninth worldwide.
“One of the things that makes this such a meaningful award for us are the judges,” Anne Murray, YVR’s vice-president of community and environmental affairs, told Business in Vancouver after the award was announced Thursday.
“The judges are the travellers who use our airport every day. More than 12 million people participated in the Skytrax survey and they’re from all around the world.”
The StarTrax survey found that the passengers’ favourite airports in the world are:
- Seoul, Korea’s Incheon International Airport;
- Singapore Changi Airport; and
- Hong Kong International Airport.
The top North American airports are:
- YVR;
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport; and
- San Francisco International Airport.
The top airports in the world that have between 10 million and 20 million passengers are:
- YVR;
- Auckland International Airport; and
- Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The awards were announced in Vienna, Austria. YVR sent its vice-president of operations, Steve Hankinson, to accept the award.
Passengers were asked to rank airports on 39 separate criteria. Murray said the criteria that most helped YVR rank so high were its:
- customer service;
- design and layout;
- innovative programs; and
- retail and service options from 160 businesses.
SkyTrax recognized the Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel for the second year in a row as the best airport hotel in North America.
