Hyderabad: GMR-run Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has yet again been recognized with the Airports Council International’s (ACI) prestigious ‘Voice of Customer’ title.
Last year, the airport was recognized with the title alongside the GMR-run Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) Delhi.
The airport has been recognized for its continuous efforts to listen to their passengers, engage and gather feedback to understand their needs and ensure customers’ voice was heard during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through 2021.
“We introduced many initiatives in collaboration with the Telangana government, such as Special Police Officers to enforce Covid protocols at the airport, enhanced passenger safety through Video Analytics, an additional RT-PCR testing lab to ensure passengers’ waiting time at the terminal is as short as possible, and so on,” said CEO GHIA, Pradeep Panicker
COVID-19 has virtually affected every sector in the world and aviation was a sector that took a hard hit. With the objective of restoring passenger trust in air travel, GMR-run Hyderabad Airport Limited (GHIAL) went all out to quickly adapt to the new normal situations and implement several passenger-friendly measures for safe travel.
Although the airport had come under scrutiny for its RT-PCR testing rates that were higher than those specified by the state, during the peak of the second wave, it managed to run functions smoothly, thereafter.
Passenger feedback was constantly monitored and worked upon. Various channels to garner passenger feedback to address concerns were activated to make the journey through the airport a memorable experience.
It also implemented several passenger-friendly measures such as contactless elevators, contactless information desks, promotion of digital transactions, app-based technologies for shopping and food ordering through HOI App, UV sanitization of passenger baggage, strategic placement of disinfectant mats, ensure higher input of UV disinfected fresh air (filtered through ‘high-efficiency particulate air’ (HEPA) filters) in the terminal buildings and sanitization of cabs were put in place.
RGIA, which is the only airport in the country to have an advantage of the paperless e-boarding facility for several years for all domestic travellers, extended this contact-less boarding for international passengers, in 2020.
Apart from these, a dedicated team of housekeeping professionals was deployed at the airports to carry out frequent disinfection drives, deep cleaning of various passenger touchpoints, and ensure strict compliance of social distancing norms.
