San Diego International Airport (SDIA) is rapidly winging its way to the top in world-class customer service. SDIA scored an impressive 83 percent on its latest passenger satisfaction survey and also earned a trio of prestigious Airport Council International awards that rank our airport among the very best in the world for customer satisfaction.

Ideally located just three miles from the heart of downtown and less than 10 minutes from the San Diego Convention Center, SDIA is the nation’s busiest single-runway commercial airport, handling over 17 million passengers annually and averaging 40,000 passengers arriving and departing daily from its three terminals. Eighteen passenger carriers are currently served by SDIA, which accommodates roughly 600 arrivals and departures daily.

The Airport Council International, which administers the Airport Service Quality Program, is the only global trade representative of airports. ACI members currently handle 96 percent of the world’s passengers.

"...it is so important to have the San Diego Regional Airport Authority as our valued partner, committed to this same level of award-winning customer service. An unforgettable experience has to begin the moment people arrive in our world-class destination until they leave."

Ninety airports worldwide participated in the ACI’s 2006 Airport Service Quality competition that led to San Diego’s three awards. The airports were judged on access/navigation and connectivity, services and facilities, security and immigration, airport environment, arrival services, value for money and overall satisfaction with the airport and airline services. San Diego finished second only to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in “Best Airports in the World Serving 15 Million to 25 Million Passengers Annually” and placed fifth in “Best Airport in the Americas and Best Domestic Airport.”

Phoenix Marketing International has been tracking passenger satisfaction at SDIA for three years now and has found it to be a consistently high performing airport. But according to Scott Ludwigsen, executive vice president of the firm’s Travel Research Group, SDIA’s 2006 passenger satisfaction survey scores were “especially high.”

To gather the data, a total of 800 departing passengers were randomly selected and interviewed face-to-face between January and December 2006. Every day of the week was covered, including the busiest travel times.

During their interviews, passengers were asked to rate SDIA on such variables as getting to the airport, service at the ticket counter, service at security checkpoint, terminal facilities, gate area, food and beverage, retail, baggage delivery and leaving the terminal. A scale of 1 to 5 was used where 1 equals “very dissatisfied” and 5 equals “very satisfied.”

More than eight out of 10 passengers or 83 percent gave SDIA an overall satisfaction score of “4” or “5.”  That compares to 75 percent in the 2005 survey. By variable, the highest overall satisfaction was 89 percent for service at the ticket counter, followed by 87 percent for service at the gate area and 84 percent for service at the security checkpoint.

By comparison, data collected by Phoenix Marketing at over 30 other U.S. airports in 2006 indicated that approximately 60 percent of passengers gave an average airport a score of 4 or 5.

The survey also indicated that 25 percent of SDIA passengers attend events at the Convention Center while in San Diego.