Delhi airport world's best in its category for second year

The Airports Council International (ACI) on Monday adjudged the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here as the world's best in the category of handling 25-40 million passengers per annum for the second consecutive year.

"The IGI Airport's partners and employees have relentlessly delivered distinct experience to our passengers, enabling us to achieve three coveted awards, including the world number one position twice in a row, best airport by size and region - Asia Pacific; and second best Airport by Region-Asia Pacific," said I. Prabhakara Rao, chief executive officer of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which manages the IGIA.

The ranking was announced by the ACI -- a trade association of the world's airports founded in 1991 -- for the 2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards on Monday, said a GMR Group statement.

In retaining the title, the IGIA scored 4.96 on a scale of 1 to 5 in the ASQ survey.

"Airports have evolved into complex, customer-focused businesses in their own right, which in many cases are in competition with each other for passenger traffic. More than anything, the ASQ is a way for the participants to measure the extent to which they deliver on these expectations," said Angela Gittens, director general, ACI World, in the statement.

The IGIA is a gateway to 58 domestic and 62 international destinations used by six domestic and 57 foreign airlines.

The airport handled on an average 958 flights a day and 760 thousand tonnes of cargo in 2015.

Indian airlines -- Air India, IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet -- use the airport as their hubs.

DIAL is a joint venture between the GMR Group, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Fraport.

The airport was developed under the public-private partnership mode with the mandate for DIAL to finance, design, build, operate and maintain it for 30 years, with an option to extend it for 30 more years.