Suvarnabhumi disputes ‘world’s 9th worst airport’ rank

After being ranked as the world's ninth worst airport by website airhelp.com, Suvarnabhumi Airport is skeptical about the data used to justify its low score.

In a statement published on its Facebook page, Suvarnabhumi Airport said it welcomes all criticism that can be used as input for further development of the service standard to be on par with other leading airports.

It said the website, which conducted the survey from December 2016 to March 2017, did not clarify how the scores were calculated in its three criteria -- on-time performance, quality and service, and passenger sentiment.

Suvarnabhumi airport said it had never given any information to the website regarding on-time performance but Flight Stat, which collects real-time flight data, reported in May that Suvarnabhumi airport ranked thirteenth for its on-time performance in the category of global hub departure performance.

Suvarnabhumi airport said the reference to Skytrax in the "quality and service" score could not be verified. The airport said that it was ranked the tenth best airport in the world among airports serving more than 40 million passengers per year in 2016 by Airport Council International (ACI), an organisation recognised in the global aviation industry.

Besides, the airport said, Mumbai and Delhi -- which the website also ranked among the worst 10 airports -- were ranked among the world's top five airports in the same category as Suvarnabhumi by the ACI in 2016.

The statement also questioned why the website did not recognise several other airports that have received high rankings from the ACI -- particularly South Korea's Incheon airport, which topped the list for several years; Narita and Kansai airports in Japan; and Dallas–Fort Worth Intenational, Phoenix Sky Harbour and Portland International airports in the US.

Regarding passenger sentiment, Suvarnabhumi airport said that the website based its scores only from English language tweets processed through its own analysis tool, and the information had not been supported by any respected organisation.

The airhelp website ranked 76 airports across the globe and Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi airport was ranked at 68, scoring 6.3 points out of 10.