BANGKOK: -- "Suvarnabhumi Airport"

BANGKOK: -- "Suvarnabhumi Airport", with the goal to improve its ranking in the Skytrax World's Top Ten Airports list for 2010, has developed a comprehensive series of 'service improvement strategies' in order to achieve an even higher level of satisfaction from passengers worldwide.

The airport has launched the "Airport of Smiles" campaign in an effort to "spread the smiles" throughout the entire world-class facility.

Suvarnabhumi attained the 3rd place ranking in the smarttravelasia.com readers' poll of World Airports, and was ranked as the World's 10th Best Airport in the SKYTRAX World Airport Awards for 2010. On the Airport Council International's (ACI) Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme, it is ranked the 24th in 2009, from 41st in 2007.

Flying Officer Anirut Thanomkulbutra, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said the campaign is to make the airport well known around the world as a place of smiles and hospitality where gracious and polite greetings and traditional Thai services are offered to passengers.

""Airport of Smiles" is a campaign to encourage our officers and related personnel working in the airport to provide their services with warm and sincere smiles to further improve passenger satisfaction. Suvarnabhumi Airport has a special responsibility to provide a positive initial impression of the Kingdom since we are the gateway to Thailand for millions of passengers worldwide. Before launching this important campaign, Suvarnabhumi Airport arranged workshops for more than 2,000 of our staff and related agencies to raise their awareness of the best practices in passenger service enhancement."

A new advertising campaign was launched, related to the fresh image of Suvarnabhumi as the "Airport of Smiles". These advertisements will be launched in November 2010 through local and international print media.

Anirut also emphasised that to achieve the goal, the airport needs cooperation from crucial organisations such as the Immigration Bureau, the Customs Department, airlines, outsource service providers, and King Power. The airport itself will improve services and facilities. All informational signage throughout the Airport will be presented in a new format with new theme colors in three languages: Thai, English, and Chinese. It will also increase the volume of recreational space across the airport in order to enhance passengers' overall experience and enjoyment of the facility. The airport is also installing a CUSS system, which is an automatic check-in service which makes it easy for travelers to print their boarding passes by themselves.


-- The Nation 2010-10-27