KARACHI: Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director General Air Marshal (r) Muhammad Yousaf, during a press briefing, has rejected the claim of an international website that Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport is the world’s worst airport.
Talking to the media, he said that the Authority has strongly rejected the survey conducted by the website, adding, “The problem is that no one here bothers to check the source of such information.”
Last week, the news of an online poll “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports” hit the local and international headlines, in which Benazir Bhutto Airport was declared the worst in the world beating Jeddah and Kathmandu.
“Even the Saudi authorities have rejected the result,” the CAA Director General said, adding that the purpose of the polling website was to find out facilities provided to the passengers who have to spend a night at airports.
Explaining the actions taken by the CAA, he said that the Authority has put in place a system to receive complaints, which had actually decreased by 40 per cent over the past few months. “But, at the same time, Islamabad airport indeed falls short of meeting the requirements of an international airport,” he acknowledged.
Pakistan’s third-largest airport in terms of passenger traffic, the Benazir Bhutto International Airport has a capacity to handle around 3 million passengers a year against a flow of 4 million, the DG said.
The Guide to Sleeping in Airports carries out annual surveys on its website, asking visitors to rate based on a set of questions like overall experience, cleanliness, comfort and customer service.
The Islamabad airport handled 4.1 million passengers or 23.25 per cent of overall passengers in the financial year 2013-14, up 9.55 per cent over the traffic it saw in the previous year. Around 36,000 flights land and take off from the airport every year.
