Airport efficiency, clean terminals and staff courtesy boost final quarter ASQ scores for LPIA

Sun, Feb 22nd 2015, 11:53 PM

Wait times matter for passengers traveling through Lynden Pindling International Airport. In fact, new airport survey results indicate increased scores based on the time it takes passengers to move through the terminal on arrival and departure. In the final quarter of 2014, LPIA scores on "waiting time in the check-in queue" increased from 4.07 to 4.37, "waiting time at security inspection" climbed from 4.04 to 4.25 and "passport/personal ID inspection" went from 4.03 in Q3 to 4.19 in Q4 in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey.

Customers also value clean terminals and staff courtesy. LPIA scored 4.56 out of a possible five-point scale high on the "cleanliness of the airport". In the category of "courtesy/helpfulness of check-in staff", scores moved from 4.14 to 4.40 in one quarter. Officials credit airlines and their staff for playing a significant role in the passengers' experience while in the terminal.

"We've put quite a bit of effort into ensuring that from a customer experience perspective, our terminals reflect the beauty and tranquility of our destination through art, landscaping and other initiatives, but at the end of the day LPIA still has to run efficiently and as we see from the survey results this matters to our passengers as well," said Nassau Airport Development President & CEO Vernice Walkine.

The efficient movement of passengers through the facilities weighed heavily on overall passenger satisfaction numbers, which rose from 4.35 in Q3 to 4.40 in Q4. Walkine believes the airport will see a further uptick in future scores with the addition of 20 new self-service automated passport control kiosks in U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this month. Considerations are being given to similar technology on the international arrivals end. NAD's CEO also contends that shorter wait times benefit the company's bottom line.

"Our push has always been to challenge the way we move passengers through the terminals. When the process is efficient, we see improved dwell times -- that is, the amount of time passengers have between checking-in and taking off from the airport. If this time is expanded, then shoppers have more time to shop, dine and relax before their flight and there's immediate benefit to our bottom line with the increased passenger spend."

Since 2011, the ASQ survey program has evaluated LPIA's performance and benchmarked the airport against other facilities within the region and in a similar size category (2-5 million passengers per annum). ASQ surveys capture passenger appraisals from more than 250 airports in over 50 countries. LPIA finished 2014 ranking in the top fifty out of 267 airports, ranked 4th within the region and 4th within the 2-5 million size category.

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