Africa Airports Customer Experience Association (AACXA)

Africa Airports CX Awards

"Recognizing excellence, innovation, and leadership"

Award Categories

Best Airport CX (Large / Medium / Small)

Recognizes airports delivering consistently high-quality, passenger-centric experiences across all key touchpoints. Assessment considers service quality, passenger satisfaction, operational efficiency, governance, and sustained performance, benchmarked against comparable airports by size and complexity.

Most Improved Airport CX

Awards airports that have demonstrated measurable and sustained improvement in customer experience over a defined period. Evaluation focuses on performance gains, effectiveness of improvement initiatives, leadership commitment, and evidence of positive passenger outcomes.

Innovation in Passenger Experience

Recognizes innovative solutions or approaches that significantly enhance the passenger journey. Innovation may be digital, operational, or service-design driven, with emphasis on real-world impact, scalability, and measurable benefits to passengers.

Inclusive & Accessible Airport

Honors airports that exemplify inclusive, barrier-free, and equitable passenger experiences. Evaluation considers accessibility for persons with disabilities, elderly passengers, families, and vulnerable groups, alongside inclusive design, staff training, and policy commitment.

Airport CX Leader of the Year

Recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in advancing airport customer experience. Assessment focuses on strategic vision, leadership impact, innovation, and measurable contributions to CX excellence at organizational or industry level.

Evaluation Framework

• Passenger data & surveys: Captures the direct voice of passengers through structured surveys and data collection across the end-to-end airport journey. It measures satisfaction, expectations, pain points, and perceptions of service quality, accessibility, and consistency. Passenger data provides the empirical foundation for benchmarking, trend analysis, and evidence-based CX improvement

• Independent CX audits: Provide an objective assessment of how airport services are designed, delivered, and managed. Audits evaluate processes, touchpoints, service standards, and operational alignment against AACXA benchmarks and global best practice. This pillar ensures credibility, comparability, and accountability beyond self-reported performance.

• Governance & sustainability: Assesses how customer experience is embedded into airport governance, leadership, and long-term strategy. It examines policy alignment, accountability structures, performance management, inclusivity, and environmental and social considerations. Strong governance and sustainability ensure that CX excellence is systematic, resilient, and future-ready.

• Innovation impact: Measures how airports adopt and scale new solutions that meaningfully improve passenger experience. This includes digital transformation, process innovation, accessibility solutions, and service design improvements. The focus is on measurable outcomes—efficiency, inclusivity, resilience, and passenger value—rather than technology adoption alone.

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