Beijing Airport Ranked 5th Worst in Asia for Service
Infamous for its high passenger volume and delays, Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) is beginning to foster an international reputation for its poor customer service.
The Beijing airport was selected as the fifth worst airport in Asia by a customer survey conducted by Sleeping in Airports (https://www.sleepinginairports.net), a website devoted to ranking world airports by their services and rest facilities.
READ: Mile Shite Club: The Worst Places to Eat at T3 of Beijing Capital International Airport
The survey also named BCIA as the eighth worst-ranked airport in the world for a layover, pointing out that waiting passengers are stuck with occupying lounge chairs due to the airport's lack of free rest zones, sleep cabins, and cots.
Day rooms are available for rent nearby, but these temporary lodgings don't come cheap. Rates start at RMB 80 for 1 hour in a single room; maxing out at RMB 300 for an overnight rate.
All the same, the Beijing airport's poor customer service remains far above that of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The southern Chinese airport was mentioned multiple times as part of Sleeping in Airport's "2017 Worst Airports List," named as the third worst airport in Asia, fourth worst for a layover, and 17th worst airport in the world (for overall experience).
The survey named Uzbekistan's Tashkent International Airport as Asia's worst, while honoring Singapore Changi International Airport as its best with Hong Kong International Airport landing in fourth place.
Passenger volume at BCIA has grown so much that it became the world's second-busiest airport in 2010, paving way for a new airport located to the south of the city that will be the "world's largest" upon completion.
But despite earning the honor of being the "most punctual airport in China" in 2015, BCIA also has the distinction of having the worst delays among its international peers.
US air travel information site FlightStats.com ranked BCIA as the most frequently delayed airport in the world in 2013 when only 18.3 percent of its flights departed on time. Forty-two percent of flights at the airport were afflicted with delays of 45 minutes or longer.
But delays obviously aren't limited to Beijing. In 2015, Chinese airlines were rated as some of the worst in the world for delays in which the country's top three carriers were rated no higher than 86 out of 103 international airlines.
But hey, even when you're stuck waiting in a crowd with no services available, you can still be amazed by the building itself. Popular Mechanics listed BCIA as one of the world's "20 most impressive airports," pointing out that the two-mile-long Terminal 3 uses a contextually Chinese-appropriate color scheme and is designed to "symbolize a dragon."
Images: ChinaDailyAsia.com
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