Melbourne Airport: Skytrax awards lists Melbourne as best Australian airport

Only one Australian airport was ranked among the top twenty globally at a recent prestigious international award.

Melbourne Airport has been awarded the best airport in the Australia Pacific at the ‘Oscars’ of the global airport industry on Wednesday night, finishing 19th in the overall rankings.

It was the highest rank achieved by an Australian airport at the prestigious Skytrax awards, held in Amsterdam, eclipsing Brisbane Airport (23) and Sydney Airport (49), which were the only other national airports to make the top 50.

The winner was Singapore’s Changi Airport, taking the mantle from last year’s winner, Doha’s Hamad International Airport, which came in at second place.

Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, Seoul’s Incheon International Airport and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport rounded out the top five internationally.

Melbourne Airport, pictured here at Christmas time, has been awarded the country’s best at a prestigious awards ceremony in Amsterdam.Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

In addition to being judged the best regional airport, Melbourne Airport’s staff were also recognised at the awards as being the best airport staff in Australia Pacific.

Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus said the awards recognised “significant” investment.

“Customer service is at the heart of what we do, and we’re incredibly proud of the work our team puts in to give our passengers the best experience they can,” Ms Argus said.

He said Melbourne Airport had acted on the feedback of visitors.

“For example, we’ve invested more than $40 million upgrading our toilets and restrooms, which have gone from being one of our biggest sources of complaints to one of our biggest sources of pride.”

Singapore’s Changi Airport was awarded the the best airport in the world at the annual Skytrax awards.

Ms Argus said they also removed the biggest passenger bottlenecks at Terminal 3 by linking it with Terminal 4, consolidating the security checkpoints and installing the latest screening technology.

She said Melbourne Airport had more upgrades planned.

“Currently much of our focus is one Terminal 1, which we believe will be Australia’s best domestic terminal when upgrade works are completed later this year.”

Melbourne wasn’t the only Australian airport to feature at the airports’ night of nights, which bases awards on passenger evaluations of infrastructure and service at more than 550 airports around the world.

Sydney Airport snuck into the top 50 in global airport rankings, coming in at 59. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

Gold Coast Airport won the best regional airport in Australia Pacific, an award that Queensland Airports Limited chief executive Amelia Evans said puts the region on the world stage.

“What makes these awards so special is that we don’t self-nominate, it’s based on direct feedback from the travelling public, so it’s the best indicator of our performance from a customer experience point of view,” Ms Evans said.

Gold Coast Airport was ranked 54 globally, beating Perth Airport (58) and Adelaide Airport (73).