Ben Gurion named best performing airport in Mideast

The Airports Council International (ACI) released its ranking of the world's top performing airports in 2008 on Tuesday. Israel's national Ben Gurion Airport was named the best performing airport in the Middle East for the second year in a row, followed by the airports in Abu Dhabi and Doha.

It was also ranked second in the category of terminals serving between 5-15 million passengers annually, after Central Japan Airport.

The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said that Ben Gurion regularly ranks very high on other international survey.

For the fourth year in a row, the top three performing airports in the world were in the Asia-Pacific Region, with Incheon International Airport in South Korea winning the coveted Best Airport Award. Passenger satisfaction with the new Terminal 3 promoted Singapore Changi Airport into 2nd place this year, with Hong Kong International Airport coming in at a close 3rd place.

The top performing airports in other regions were Zurich, Switzerland (Europe), Halifax, Canada (North America), Guayaquil, Ecuador (Latin America & Caribbean) and George, South Africa (Africa).

In 2008, the rankings were based on the results of over 200,000 questionnaires completed by passengers at 108 airports.

In the last year the IAA allocated NIS 3.7 billion ($873,000,000) towards improving safety, security and customer service at the terminal. IAA Director General Kobi Mor noted that 2008 saw record high traffic at the airport and added that the vast financial investments and projects planned by the authority were bound to "significantly improve the passengers' experience."