Airports Council International (ACI) announces the key findings

Airports Council International (ACI) announced the key findings of a new white paper analyzing the influence of customer service quality on airports’ non-aeronautical revenue.

“ACI’s Airport Service Quality research and analysis suggests that, for most airports, prioritizing customer service results in the greatest positive impact on non-aeronautical revenue-it can potentially deliver an even greater return on investment than can be achieved through traffic increases or expansion of commercial space,” says Angela Gittens , Director General, ACI World.

The white paper is based on the ACI ASQ annual global survey carried out at almost 300 airports of various sizes across the world and surveying over 550,000 passengers per year. The white paper is further supported by data generated from the annual ACI Airport Economics Survey.

The analysis found that raising customer service levels can be significantly more effective in driving revenue-more effective even than a 1% increase in retail space:

A 1% increase in passenger traffic drives a non-aeronautical revenue increase ranging from 0.7% to 1%.
A 1% increase in commercial space drives an increase in non-aeronautical revenue of 0.2%.
A 1% increase in passenger satisfaction levels delivers an increase of 1.5% in non-aeronautical revenue.
The white paper provides crucial guidance to airports on the most effective path toward raising non-aeronautical revenue, with the key learning from the paper being that satisfied passengers spend more. Airports of all sizes across the world are able to utilize ASQ data to analyze their service performance and target their investment to drive the most effective enhancement of overall service quality.

“Of course, each airport faces unique issues in determining its investment programme, but many airports instantly seize upon traffic and retail space as the key engines of revenue growth when in fact customer service may well be the optimal route,” continued Director General Gittens. “The in-depth tailored data provided by the ASQ programme not only gives each airport its own pathway to maximizing service quality, but also helps deliver the best return on its carefully targeted investment.”