Hamad International Airport (HIA) has been ranked sixth Best Airport in the World by the 2017 Skytrax World Airport Awards, moving up four places from last year.

At a ceremony that took place during the Passenger Terminal Expo in Amsterdam, HIA was also named “Best Airport in the Middle East” for the third consecutive year and was awarded “Best Staff Service in the Middle East” for the second consecutive year.

Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: “We are delighted to congratulate our home and hub, HIA, on being ranked the Sixth Best Airport in the World by Skytrax. HIA opened within the last four years and climbed to the sixth position in the world airports ranking, a move which clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the highest standard of service to our passengers, who have graciously given us their vote of confidence. It is even more notable to receive these prestigious awards as we significantly grow the number of passengers served at HIA year on year, to 37 million in 2016.”

HIA was classified as a five-star airport in January this year, after being audited by Skytrax, elevating it into the elite category of top-tier airports. It is only the sixth airport worldwide to have earned the Five Star distinction, and the only airport in the Middle East with the best-in-class designator.

The World Airport Awards are the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry, voted by customers in the largest annual global airport customer satisfaction survey. The survey and awards process is totally independent and free of any airport influence or interference in final results. The awards are based on 12.8 million customer nominations across 110 nationalities of air travellers, and include 410 airports worldwide.

The survey evaluates customer satisfaction across 39 key performance indicators for airport service and product – from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration, through to departure at the gate. - TradeArabia News Service