In Pursuit of a Future Value Proposition For Qro Int Airport

Have you ever wondered why the main Mexican airports do not appear or rarely appear in the most recognized rankings of the best airports in the world? In this article, we will analyze this fact, and we will propose the first steps to create the value proposition for the Querétaro International Airport (AIQ). There will be a set of indicators that will represent its value proposition on the path to achieving its future vision. Only by knowing which indicators shall be measured, we will be in the position to improve the AIQ's operation to the levels of performance that society will require in the future.

What do these specialized rankings measure?

The first step is to understand what these rankings intend to measure, analyze them and find the correlation between them and what we understand as “Airport Quality.” Once this is done, we will be in a better position to design our own set of indicators, which will represent our value proposal. I really like the term "Airport Quality" because it opens the possibility of embedding this value proposition into a quality management system; for example, the international standard ISO 9001 (see www.iso.org). If the indicators that will make up the value proposition are part of a quality management system, it will be more feasible to deploy it, make it sustainable over time and, most importantly, guarantee its customer focus.

There are different organizations that analyze airports' operations to publish the list of the best airports in the world; they developed and applied their own evaluation methodology. Among the most relevant are the Skytrax World Airport Awards, which since 1999 has published a list of the 100 best airports in the world, as well as the version of AirHelp with its Global Airport Ranking founded in 2013 and whose methodology has a different approach to Skytrax's.

The Skytrax methodology consists of applying a survey in which passengers from more than 500 airports on all continents and from more than 100 countries answer the "Vote for the World's Best Airport" survey. This survey is available in Spanish, English and Chinese and is active 10 months of the year. The survey contains about 50 questions that include the passenger's experience when using the services of an airport, from consulting the information on its website, accessibility to the airport, experience upon arrival, its stay at the airport, the process when picking up their baggage and transportation options when leaving the facilities.

The methodology for AirHelp consists of  an evaluation with three main categories: “On-time performance,” “Customer opinion” and “Food and shops.” Regarding the “On-time performance” category, they use the on-time performance statistics for every airport to calculate how likely it is that the flight will be on time. To know the “Customer opinion” for every airport, they ask thousands of passengers around the world about staff, wait times, and cleanliness at their most recently used airports. Finally, via surveys, they ask thousands of passengers to rate the quality aspects of restaurants and shops services at the airports they most recently visited; the summary of these evaluations is the qualification for the category of “Food and Shops.”

Mexican airports in the world’s best rankings 

The World Airport Awards of Skytrax in its version of the World’s Top 100 Airports 2021 does not include any Mexican airport; the best airports are in Asia and Europe, which monopolized the Top 10 places, with seven for Asia, including the best five, and three for Europe. America has only 19 airports ranked: 15 are in the region of North America and the rest in South America. The US ranked 13 airports, Canada two, Ecuador two, Peru one and Colombia one.

The results of the Global Airport Ranking from AirHelp, which is also reporting the 100 top airports in the world for 2022, are different from the SkyTrax's; this could be due to its methodology, which combines hard data (statistics) with soft data (the perception of passengers via surveys), unlike the SkyTrax's, which is based only on the perception of passengers via a main survey.

The regions and countries that are monopolizing the Top 10 places are Asia with six airports and South America with four. The surprise is Brazil, which ranked four of its airports among the Top 10. Japan is without any doubt a world power in airport quality because in both rankings, its airports are among the Top 5 in the world (Tokyo Haneda International Airport and Tokyo Narita International Airport). 

Regarding America as a continent in this ranking, Mexico does appear with only two airports: Cancun International Airport ranked in 41st place and Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport ranked 46th. Mexico City International Airport, the most important airport in Mexico based on the number of flights, cargo, and number of transported passengers, as published by the Mexican Federal Civil Aviation Agency in October 2022, does not appear in this ranking nor in SkyTrax's. 

The North American region has a strong presence in AirHelp’s Top 100 airports, accounting for 27 airports but only three of these are located outside of the USs. South America has 10 airports among the Top 100, where Brazil has a strong dominance with seven of these 10; in Latin America, Brazil is the dominant power as regards airport quality.

How to start creating a value proposition for the AIQ

Developing a value proposition for the Querétaro International Airport must have as its central purpose to achieve the mission for which it was created: to be an instrument of development for the state and the region. Talking about development not only implies economic development, but also includes infrastructure industrial development, and development of capacities in security and communications. In a phrase, the goal is to raise the quality of life of Queretaro’s society.

This proposal must be materialized by creating a list of indicators that will allow, in the first stage, a determination of  where we are. The next  step is to define the level of performance that the AIQ requires, assigning goals to these indicators within a certain period to finally launch actions and projects that will make the AIQ’s vision a reality.

One strategy to start defining these indicators is to describe the passenger experience as a process; describing the package of services that passengers receive throughout their flight experience is a practical methodology that makes it possible to break down the complexity. This must be analyzed from the moment the need to consult airport information arises; at this stage, elements like  standard of airport website information, quality of access roads, availability of public transport serving the airport/signage for public transport, taxi availability/prices, etc. must be considered.

Next would be to analyze the arrival to the airport, which would include quality and prices for parking, availability of luggage trolleys, courtesy and attitude of security staff, efficiency of check-in facilities, queuing systems and seating, and waiting times at security screening. The next phase in the passenger experience is waiting for their flight, for which it is necessary to consider issues like  terminal comfort, ambience and design, terminal cleanliness, floors, seating and public areas, seating facilities throughout terminals, clarity of boarding calls and the airport PA, flight info screens, clarity/quality of information, friendliness and language skills of airport staff, ease of transit through airport, washroom availability and cleanliness, choice of shopping, including tax-free and other outlets, choice of bars, cafes and restaurants, quality of Wi-Fi and even the availability of hotel services.

The process of boarding the plane and mainly the times of departures will be key factors in the final perception of the passenger’s experience. If the flight is delayed and the  causes are related to the airport and airlines, process efficiency will be one of the main factors to be evaluated.

Two processes close the passenger’s experience: flight arrival and leaving the airport. The arrival includes immigration queuing times/system, immigration staff attitude, information about picking up baggage, baggage delivery times and lost luggage services. Leaving the airport includes taxi services and prices, availability of pick-up facilities, and parking services are among the most important.

As you can see, the mix of services that make up an airport offer is complex. The passenger experience includes several steps but only by separating this process in less complex steps we will have the possibility of analyzing and defining what we should measure to improve: divide and conquer!

It is also a challenge to describe in just one article this complexity, which is why I will continue describing a concrete proposal for indicators that a great airport should focus on, in my next article.

Sources

World Airport Awards Methodology. (2022, 13 junio). SKYTRAX. https://www.worldairportawards.com/awards-methodology/

World’s Top 100 Airports 2021. (2021, 5 agosto). SKYTRAX. https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2021/

Best Airport Rankings Worldwide + Airport Ratings |  Score. (s. f.). AirHelp. https://www.airhelp.com/en/airhelp-score/airport-ranking/

Estadísticas de la aviación en México. (2022, octubre). SCT AFAC.  https://www.gob.mx/afac/acciones-y-programas/estadisticas-280404