GMR Infrastructure subsidiary DIAL's partner Malaysia Airports wins World’s Best Airport Award

GMR Infrastructure Ltd has announced that Malaysia Airports, a partner in Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) and GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHAIL) has won the World’s Best Airport Award in the 15-25 million passengers per annum category by the Airport Council International's Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards 2006. It was given this award for Malaysia's flagship airport, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). DIAL is the joint venture company led by GMR Group formed to modernize and restructure the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi and GHAIL is a GMR led joint venture developing the new Hyderabad International Airport.

San Diego Airport in the US and Zurich Airport in Switzerland were placed second and third in the category at the award presentation ceremony, which was held in Dubai in conjunction with the two-day Airport Council International (ACI), Airport Business and Trinity Forum. KLIA also maintained its third place in both the Best Airport Worldwide and Best Airport in Asia/Pacific categories, behind Incheon Airport, Korea, and Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport while Singapore's Changi Airport was fourth.

ASQ is a survey organized by the ACI, in which 81 airports worldwide participated in the ASQ Survey 2006. The survey was conducted by means of benchmarking airports performance on service quality, facilities and passengers feedbacks. DIAL is also laying emphasis on improving service quality. ASQ (Airport Service Quality) ratings accord substantial weightage to service quality, cleanliness and hygiene.

To achieve that target, DIAL is equipping its staff with skills and training to achieve that goal. Executives from departments have been sent on study tours to various international airports such as those in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and the US to understand needs and demands of passengers. Housekeeping staff have been specially trained by a leading hospitality chain of the country. Regular training programmes are also being run for employees in language and presentation skills, computer training amongst others.

The Master Plan for the modernization of IGI Airport submitted DIAL envisages enhancing capacity to handle 37 million passengers. The construction of a new integrated passenger terminal and third runway is already underway. The new terminal will cater to the both domestic and international traffic and will be ready by 2010.

Source : Equity Bulls

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