Hamad International Airport (HIA) has emerged as world-class airport driven by various proactive steps taken in the past three years. The Airport won several awards and continued with its expansion plans despite unjust blockade imposed on Qatar.
This month, Hamad International Airport was ranked the “Third Best Airport in the World”, among 550 airports worldwide, by the SKYTRAX World Airport Awards 2020. Rising from fourth position in 2019 to third in 2020, HIA has been steadily rising in the ‘World’s Best Airports’ rankings since the start of its operations in 2014.
Aside from an excellent third position in the global ratings, the airport had success in numerous other worldwide product and service categories such as transit airport (3rd), immigration processing (10th), baggage delivery (10th), terminal cleanliness (5th), and leisure amenities (7th). Doha Hamad was also the best overall airport serving 30 to 40-million passengers.
In addition, HIA has been voted the ‘Best Airport in the Middle East’ for the sixth year in a row and ‘Best Staff Service in the Middle East’ for the fifth year in a row.
HIA also continues to retain its five-star airport classification since 2017.These achievements are a result of the hard work and determination demonstrated by the airport staff, to make HIA the ‘world’s fastest growing airport’. HIA’s rankings are also a result of its operational excellence. During 2019, the airport served a record 38,786,422 passengers, the most since the airport began operations in 2014.
Qatar’s airport invests in upskilling its people and building local talent. HIA recently launched ENJAZ, its national talent development programme created to grow, nurture and build its talent. The programme focuses on training and developing nationals in order to meet their role requirements in various departments of the airport to enhance job performance and build expertise, in cooperation with associations in the field of aviation, in addition to prestigious local and international educational institutions to provide expanded development plans for national cadres.
Hamad International Airport has served a record 38.78 million passengers in 2019, which is the most number of passengers it has served since the start of its operations in 2014, making 2019 HIA’s most successful year yet. This also shows a year-on-year growth of 12.44% compared to passenger numbers in 2018.
Eight new passenger destinations were added to HIA’s global network in 2019 which were Davao- Philippines, Rabat- Morocco, Izmir-Turkey, Gaborone-Botswana, Langkawi-Malaysia, Mogadishu-Somalia, Malta and Lisbon- Portugal. Three new cargo destinations were also added to HIA’s network which are namely Istanbul, New York and Almaty.
Fifteen airlines operating at HIA increased their weekly flight frequencies including Kuwait Airways, Salam Air, Philippine Airlines, Oman Airand Air India Express. HIA also welcomed two new airline partners, namely, Air India and Tarco Aviation. This lead to HIA handlinga total of 232,917 aircraft movements in 2019, which is 5.57% more than the previous year.
HIA announced its multi-phased airport expansion plan in 2019. Phase A of the expansion is set to comprise of a central concourse linking concourses D and E and will increase the airport’s capacity to more than 53 million passengers annually by 2022. Phase B, which will be completed after 2022, will extend concourses D and E to further enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million passengers annually. The expansion project will also feature a 10,000 sqm indoor tropical garden, a 268 sqm water feature, 11,720 sqm of landscaped retail and F&B space and 9,000 sqm of world-class Al Mourjan lounge.
HIA expansion will also see the construction of a new cargo terminal that will increase capacity handled to an estimated 3.2 million tons per year. The state-of-the-art terminal is slated to be ready by 2023, and will be a multi-level facility with 85,000 sqm building footprint, across three levels as well as three mezzanine levels providing approximately 323,000 sqm of gross floor area.
HIA also introduced innovative solutions in 2019 to achieve operational excellence and enhanced passenger experience in the terminal. The airport implemented advanced software solutions for passenger forecasting and queue measurement which provides real time passenger traffic forecasting as well as calculating waiting times and throughputs which are visualized on a live dashboard, allowing the airport to keep waiting times in check. The software has enabled the operational staff to be proactive and stay agile in the terminal’s dynamic environment.
Along with HIA’s self-check-in and self-bag-drop kiosks, which were introduced in the terminal to provide passengers with a faster and smoother check in process, HIA recently introduced ten automated security gates at the pre-immigration area, so passengers can scan their own boarding cards and proceed to immigration, providing passengers with a truly autonomous travel experience.
HIA was voted as the “Best Airport in the Middle East” for the third consecutive year in 2019 at the 16th Annual Global Traveler’s GT Tested Reader Survey Awards in Los Angeles, recognising it for its outstanding performance in providing an exceptional experience to travellers. It received the “Best Passenger Experience Initiative” silver award at the Future Travel Experience (FTE) Asia Awards 2019 in Singapore in November 2019 in recognition for the second phase of its Smart Airport Program. It was also named the “Best Airport for Passenger Experience” for the second consecutive year in a study by AirHelp, the world’s leading air passenger rights specialist.
Hamad International Airport, in 2019, launched the second phase of its innovative Smart Airport program.
Hamad International Airport is now using robotics and advanced thermal screening helmets as part of the measures being introduced for the post-COVID-19 era. The airport has implemented the latest technologies to optimize passenger and employee safety in preparation for post-COVID-19 travel.
Using the latest technology and tools, HIA will continue to conduct thermal screening and disinfection procedures for all staff and passengers. Travellers at HIA will be screened using thermal and temperature screening. The Smart Screening Helmet is a wearable intelligent helmet, which is portable, safe and effective, and enables contactless temperature measurement. This helmet uses multiple advanced technologies such as infrared thermal imaging, artificial intelligence and AR (augmented reality) display. It can also enable implementation of mobile deployment-based control scenarios.
HIA has also invested in disinfectant robots, which are fully autonomous mobile devices emitting concentrated UV-C light, which are known to be effective in eliminating majority of infectious microorganisms. The robots are being deployed in vulnerable high passenger flow areas to reduce the spread of pathogens.
All passengers are being provided with hand sanitisers readily available at key locations. The airport will continue to maintain 1.5m social distancing across all passenger touch points around the airport, through floor markings, signage and distance seating. All HIA retail and food and beverage outlets will encourage cashless transactions through cards and is considering introducing online or in-app purchases in the future. Furthermore, HIA has invested in ultraviolet disinfection tunnels that will be used to disinfect all checked-in passenger luggage (departing, arriving and transferring). The airport will also conduct regular disinfection of all baggage trolleys and tubs.
