OREANDA-NEWS. October 01, 2014. At an event hosted by Munich Airport (FMG), about 200 guests, including many representatives of the airlines, government agencies and companies located at the airport, got together to celebrate the airport's highly successful showing at the "World Airport Awards 2014".

In the survey of approximately 13 million passengers conducted by the London-based consultancy Skytrax, Munich was voted "Best Airport in Europe", and also achieved an outstanding number three position in the worldwide rankings, topped only by Singapore and Seoul.

Edward Plaisted, the president of Skytrax, was on hand to present the results, and noted in his congratulatory remarks that Munich also achieved excellent results in many individual categories. "Munich Airport has reason to celebrate their strong success at the 2014 World Airport Awards, the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry that are voted for by customers in the annual global airport customer satisfaction survey. At a time when Munich Airport is targeting the prospect of being the first airport outside Asia to gain 5-Star Airport status, the exceptional performances in the 2014 Awards underlines the reality of this," said Plaisted.

Commenting on the high rankings achieved again this year, Dr. Markus Soder, a member of the Bavarian cabinet and the chairman of the FMG Supervisory Board, Bavarian hub celebrates seventh "European championship" stressed the importance of the airport for Bavaria: "Munich Airport is an excellent calling card for the state of Bavaria: It is reliable and service-oriented. It ensures the competitiveness of our state's economy while serving as a welcoming gateway to the world."

Airport CEO Dr. Michael Kerkloh sees the key to the airport's success in the "extremely successful teamwork" within the airport family. Kerkloh: "Our priority now will be to maintain the very positive perception of our airport among passengers, now expressed in our seventh selection as Europe's best airport, in the years ahead." Kerkloh added that, in support of that goal, the airport will be conducting a quality campaign in conjunction with the Skytrax audit, with which Munich plans to achieve the status of a "five-star airport". Munich would then become the first airport in Europe to meet the exacting standards needed to earn that top quality ranking.

Nearly 13 million passengers from 110 countries took part in the World Airport Awards 2014 survey. A total of 410 international airports were ranked in more than 30 service and product categories along the travel chain from the passenger's standpoint – from check-in, arrival, connectivity, security and passport control and through to departure. The survey also looked at the friendliness and competency of airport staff and the shopping and dining options at the airport.

In its "weight class" – airports with 30 to 40 million passengers per year – Munich Airport was number one in the world, and was ranked number two worldwide in each of the categories "Airport restaurants" "Terminal comfort and leisure amenities"and "VIP terminals". In view of the passengers' assessment that Munich has the best airport team in Europe, airport CEO Michael Kerkloh concluded that all 33,000 airport employees can now call themselves European champions.