As Malta Airport Ranked Fifth Worst In The World, MIA Says Its Focused On Delivering ‘Excellent Service’
The world’s major airports were ranked using an online travel website that scored the world’s airports on three metrics: on-time performance, service quality, and food and shops – and Malta didn’t come out looking so good.
The position turned heads locally, especially in light of some of the praiseworthy accolades the airport has received over the last few years.
The ranking, formulated by AirHelp, a German claims company, was picked up by American online media outlet Insider, and placed Malta International Airport in the 5th worst position overall.
“Malta International Airport is the Maltese Islands’ only airport. It served 1.7 million passengers in 2020. The airport is rated 6/10 on Skytrax. An Italian traveler said the airport is ‘too small for the [number of] passengers it is serving’ and that several people slept on the floor because of the lack of seats in the airport. Another traveler advised future travellers to be early at the airport as delays are common,” Insider reported.
Malta failed to impress in each of the metrics.
In their ranking, MIA scored five out of ten for its on-time performance, the metric which carried the most weight. Meanwhile, scores of 7.7 and 7.5 were dished out for service quality, and food and shops respectively.
MIA scored an overall 6.05, which one could argue, isn’t as bad as Lisbon Portela Airport, which scored an overall 5.76 and secured the first-place spot on the list.
Malta International Airport
On-time performance measures how punctual flight departures and arrivals are. This accounts for 60% of an airport’s overall score.
Service quality contributes another 20% of the score. It is evaluated by the quality of customer service, how fast security wait times are, and how clean an airport is.
Food and shops carry the final 20% of the score; with data collected from passengers who rate food and shopping options on a scale of one to five.
AirHelp specialises in airline disruption claims. It published its first airport ranking and continues to update it regularly.
The airport was also given a six out of 10 rating on Skytrax, a United Kingdom-based consultancy that runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.
However, it wasn’t all bad for Malta’s lone airport. In 2020, it was among the winners of the Airports Council International’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards, and even claimed the ‘Best Airport in Europe‘ in its size category for the third consecutive year.
In this ranking system, Malta was one of 348 airports ranked, worldwide, by 306,673 passengers throughout 2020 bar the second quarter. A total of 1,044 departing passengers rated Malta Airport based on 34 key performance indicators related to the service provided and facilities offered.
Varying titles have meant many debate whether Malta’s Airport is regarded highly or not among tourists and travellers, particularly with the number of tourists steadily on the rise again after COVID-19-related hiccups.
In fact, the number of inbound tourists in April amounted to 194,545, according to the National Statistics Office.
“AirHelp is a claims management company, which specialises in assisting dissatisfied airline customers make claims in relation to flight disruptions” – MIA
Following the questionable ranking, Lovin Malta spoke with a spokesperson from MIA, who gave us their own take:
“Firstly, we would like to acknowledge that flight disruptions affect the overall passenger experience. However, some of the most common causes of disruptions, including inclement weather, operational issues, and staff shortages, are beyond reasonable control.”
“As an airport, our key focus is on delivering excellent service to our guests through the provision of high-quality facilities inside the terminal building and our frontline staff. Our focus on the guest experience has been rewarded by certified aviation audit and feedback companies such as Airports Council International and Skytrax again and again.”
“In the past five years, we have received Airport Council International’s ‘Best Airport in Europe’ title for our size category four times, based on the ratings of our passengers, as well as made Skytrax’s top 10 airports worldwide list for its size category in 2019.”
What’s your take on the quality of Malta International Airport in general?