Copenhagen Airport has the world’s best security processing

A total of 12.1 million passengers have rated 395 airports worldwide in the Skytrax international survey of passenger satisfaction, and the conclusion is clear: Copenhagen Airport has the world’s best and most friendly security process.

“At a time when airport security screening is usually seen as a necessary evil, it is extremely important to make travellers feel welcome. In that respect, it is definitely a feather in the cap for our employees whose intensive efforts over the past six to seven years have helped passengers to a good start to their journey while constantly maintaining a high security level,” said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airport, about the Skytrax award, which is officially entitled “World’s Best Airport Security Processing”.

The fact that the Copenhagen Airport security screening staff focuses so much on both service and security was emphasised in a full-scale inspection conducted by the EU in the autumn of 2012 which in conclusion commended Copenhagen Airport’s Security Department for its both committed and friendly staff and for maintaining a high level of security that fully meets the international rules set by the EU and ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization).

Ahead of Asian airports
No other European airports made it to the top of the list, and the Skytrax award was given to Copenhagen Airport ahead of four Asian airports. In itself, this is remarkable as Asian airports have for the past decade generally received the top ratings in largely all international airline passenger satisfaction surveys, especially those relating to passenger service.

“The fact that the service we provide in our security processing is better than at airports in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan is the greatest acknowledgement our security screening staff could get. Our focus is on ensuring that service and security go hand in hand, and we want our passengers to know that we mean it when we wish them a good trip,” said Johnnie Müller, head of Security at Copenhagen Airport.

Winning praise of short waiting times
In the motivation for the award, Skytrax emphasised that the security screening staff at Copenhagen Airport are friendly but that they are also efficient, which leads to short waiting times.

“We are pleased that Copenhagen Airport has been rated best in the ”World’s Best Airport Security Processing“ category, which has for several years been dominated by Asian airports. At the end of the day, passengers appreciate efficient and friendly service, two areas in which Copenhagen Airport scored highly in the survey,” said Edward Plaisted, Chairman of Skytrax.

Copenhagen Airport continuously measures waiting times for security screening of international passengers in Terminals 2 and 3. The average waiting time in 2012 was 3½ minutes.

Copenhagen Airport received the award for best security processing ahead of Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan, Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo International Airport Haneda in Tokyo. Three of these four airports were also in the top five last year, while this is Copenhagen Airport’s first time is at the top of the list.