KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has been named as one of the world's top 10 airports in the global Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey by Airports Council International (ACI) for the category of over 40 million passengers per annum in 2020.

ASQ benchmarks the world's best airports in terms of overall passenger satisfaction for terminal safety, facilities, services, and cleanliness.

In a statement today, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said the achievement, announced by ACI early this month, was borne out by the airport's continuous efforts in carrying out improvement initiatives despite being severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Group chief executive Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said passenger traffic for the MAHB group remained low due to prolonged domestic and international travel restrictions with only 1.6 million passenger movements recorded in February.

Nevertheless, he said, the airport still forged ahead with mission critical projects, including the washroom refurbishment, formation of the operational excellence teams that diligently identified and designed improvement initiatives and the introduction of the Exceptional People Practice Playbook -- a dual language manual to guide front liners in their interaction with passengers.

"This year, passengers can look forward to an improved journey including shorter wait times and facial recognition technology that are part of our Airports 4.0 digital transformation," he said.

Mohd Shukrie said MAHB remained optimistic on the resiliency of the demand in air travel.

"We have seen strong revival when travel restrictions were lifted in previous times, and for that, we will continue to enhance our offerings.

"Staying cognisant with the evolving demands of passengers and the aviation industry will help us stay ahead of the competition as we aim to be among the top five airports this year," he added.

-- BERNAMA