Rostov-on-Don Airport has received a 5-star rating from the British research company Skytrax and has become the first Russian airport to achieve this level. The rating evaluates the quality of airport service for passengers according to several dozen criteria, reports the company.Corr. Travel.ru.
Rostov Airport became the tenth in the world to receive the 5-star rating (there are 140 airports in the Skytrax rating). At the same time, since 2017, Skytrax has introduced relaxed requirements for classifying regional airports, which include Rostov. The company explained this by the desire to give equal opportunities in the rating to both global hubs and small airports with predominantly domestic flights - they are subject to fewer requirements in terms of services and entertainment for transit passengers.
Over the past two years, Baku, Nagoya (Chubu), Haikou and now Rostov have received the 5-star regional airport status. Only 6 airports have a more complex global 5-star rating: Tokyo (Haneda), Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul (Incheon), Doha and Munich.
Among Russian airports, the maximum has so far been 4 stars – this rating is held by Yekaterinburg, Samara and Kazan (all of them are also classified as regional). In total, 48 airports in the world have been assigned this level. Moscow's Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo have a three-star category – but in a more complex global classification.
It is likely that several more Russian airports with new terminals (for example, Vladivostok, St. Petersburg or Moscow's Vnukovo) could well feature in this rating, but Skytrax has not yet conducted inspections there. However, some of them are mentioned in the separate World Airport Awards rating published annually by the same Skytrax, based on passenger reviews. In particular, in the 2018 rating, all Moscow airports, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg and Samara made it into the top ten best airports in the CIS region (Rostov practically did not participate in it, since it opened only shortly before the end of last year's voting, but still managed to get into the top ten best regional airports in the CIS).
The exact rating for each of the criteria for assessing Rostov airport has not yet been published by Skytrax. Their list includes an assessment of transport to the airport, convenience of security control, average waiting time at various stages of airport service, navigation in the terminal, walking distances for passengers, availability of various services and amenities, variety of shopping and restaurant outlets, availability of wireless Internet, etc.
Once this detailed rating becomes publicly available, the quality of work of Skytrax experts in Rostov can be assessed in more detail. Although Rostov airport is indeed one of the best and most convenient for passengers in Russia, the situation can still be improved in a number of areas.
In particular, it would be interesting to know the assessment of transport to the airport (Skytrax experts visited Rostov in January, when problems with minibuses to the airport were regular - passengers complained daily on social networks about the impossibility of leaving or hour-long trips standing in a full minibus). However, in early February the situation improved noticeably - large buses finally came on the route, although the intervals increased, and baggage suddenly became a paid service. An obvious drawback for the rating is also the lack of budget cafes in the clean departure area.
It is likely that Rostov airport could count on maximum ratings in terms of waiting time for passengers at various stages of service, convenience of departure zones, transfer speed for transfer passengers, availability of the Internet and vending machines, short walking distances, information service in the terminal, presentation of the region served and a number of other points. The Skytrax rating requires annual confirmation.
Source: travel.ru
