Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been adjudged the Best Airport in Africa that handles 2m-5m passengers per anum by Airports Council International’s (ACI).

The ACI’s Airport Service Quality awards, which highlight the world’s best airports as judged by their customers, is based on the views of customers in 2020. It measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators.

Giving the challenging situation posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kotoka International Airport was recognised for listening to its customers and adapting the services and experiences it offers to meet changing needs and expectations under the current very trying circumstances.

The airport operator, Ghana Airports Company Limited, since the outbreak of the pandemic, intensified its cleaning routine and has undertaken fumigation exercise of the entire facility twice.

Again, though the airport was closed to scheduled passenger traffic for about five months, the ability of the airport managers, working with government agencies, to institute a antigen test in time for the re-opening of the facility on September 1, 2020, was lauded by passengers and governments around the world and served as a model for others.



The KIA is also among the first few airports in Africa that have received ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation Certificate.

ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said: “ACI’s Airport Service Quality awards represent the highest possible accolade for airport operators around the world. This year more than any other, the awards recognise those airports that have listened to their customers and adapted the services and experiences they offer to meet changing needs and expectations under very trying circumstances.

“I am proud of the achievements of all ASQ award winners which shows their focus on delivering excellence in customer experience and setting an example of excellence for their peers. As we come together as an industry to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus on customers that the ASQ programme provides will help guide the way.”

On his part, Bruno Spada, EVP, Airport IT, Amadeus said: “We at Amadeus congratulate all the ASQ award winners for their ongoing commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience in the face of adversity caused by COVID-19. Amadeus shares this commitment, which is why we’ve been investing for many years to bring an integrated platform for all aspects of passenger services to the airport industry, incorporating applications, hardware and services.”

“With a modular cloud platform, airports can better connect to airlines to bring new passenger service innovations like biometrics or contactless to market. They can base operations on a consistent flow of data throughout the entire airport journey, which is the key to delivering a truly smooth experience for passengers. And they can do all this with minimal effort or delay because we’ve taken care of the complexity in the cloud.”

More than half of the world’s travellers pass through an ASQ airport. ACI adapted the rigorous quality control process for the ASQ awards programme to ensure the benchmarking and findings from the ASQ surveys remained of the highest quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other winners include: Moi International Airport – Mombasa, Kenya (<2million passengers); Jomo Kenyatta International Airport – Nairobi, Kenya and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport – Abuja, Nigeria (5-15million)