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Adelaide Airport rated highly by international travellers despite slide on Skytrax rankings

THE good news for Adelaide Airport is a survey of international travellers covering 550 airports ranks it in the top 100 in the world. The bad news — is it seriously rated the worst major airport in Australia?

ADT's new promotional video for Adelaide Airport

THE good news for Adelaide Airport is a survey of international travellers covering 550 airports ranks it in the top 100 in the world, ahead of places such as Rome, Boston, Brussels and Prague.

The not-so good news is that at number 78, it slipped five places since last year and trails the other major Australian airports.

The results dampened the airport’s day of celebration on Thursday as yet another operator started direct services with the commencement of return flights three times a week to Newcastle by FlyPelican.

The 2018 Skytrax World Airport Awards put Sydney in the top spot of Australian airports at number 20, up three places and just ahead of Brisbane at No. 22 (down from 16 last year).

Melbourne jumped three places to No. 27, Gold Coast was No. 55 while Perth rose 12 spots to claim No. 59.

Adelaide Aiport was ranked above many large international airports, but behind other major Australian ones, in the Skytrax survey. Picture: Stephen Laffer
Adelaide Aiport was ranked above many large international airports, but behind other major Australian ones, in the Skytrax survey. Picture: Stephen Laffer

An Adelaide Airport spokesman said work now underway would improve travellers’ experience.

“We’re a bit surprised by the result because there’s a lot of good things happening at the airport,” he said.

“We’re attracting more international passengers than ever before, we’ve just completed a refurbishment of all our rest room facilities and we’re building the new Atura Hotel, due to open later this year.

“We’re conscious that our international success has meant we’re running tight for room in international arrivals, and we’re close to finalising planning and approvals to significantly expand our international area.

“As these projects are complete we would anticipate further improvement in our overall customer experience.”

Despite Adelaide’s fall on the list, reviews posted by travellers on the Skytrax site were glowing. Picture: AAP/Emma Brasier
Despite Adelaide’s fall on the list, reviews posted by travellers on the Skytrax site were glowing. Picture: AAP/Emma Brasier

Despite Adelaide’s fall on the list, reviews posted by travellers on the Skytrax site were glowing, such as: “I had an unexpected emergency landing at Adelaide Airport in October, and I only have praise for the staff working here,”

Another says: “This airport is very modern and a quite lovely experience when travelling here.”

In stark contrast comments about Sydney Airport included: “confused, chaotic, poorly signed and has inferior pedestrian and auto access”, while another labelled it “the worst airport on the planet”.

Far from being a scientific report by experts to objectively rank airports, the annual Skytrax survey is voted on by air travellers, based on questionnaires from August 2017 to February 2018 by people who could be bothered filling out the form.

It asked travellers to evaluate their experiences across services from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration through to departure at the gate.

Internationally, Singapore’s Changi Airport retained its No. 1 ranking for the sixth year running.

A separate survey of travellers just two years ago ranked Adelaide Airport No. 9 in the world, the only Australian airport to make its top 10.

Travel + Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards survey of readers in 2016 asked them to rank international airports based on access, check-in, security, restaurants, shopping and design -ADL came in at 9, a result the outlet labelled ‘surprising’.

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Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-airport-rated-highly-by-international-travellers-despite-slide-on-skytrax-rankings/news-story/8d1f00180e28d09c60f6579e3ee7d807