Brazil’s Belo Horizonte airport voted best in LatAm

The international airport in Belo Horizonte, a city in southeastern Brazil, has been voted the best airport in Latin America and the Caribbean for 2018 in the 5 million to 15 million passenger per year category, BH Airport, which operates the facility, said Monday.

Tancredo Neves International Airport, located in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, was chosen for the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award on the basis of the cleanliness of the terminal, the facility’s atmosphere and the flight information provided on screens, BH Airport said in a statement.

Travelers were asked in a survey to rate Tancredo Neves International Airport on a scale of 0 to 5, focusing on the different areas on which the largest airports in the world are rated.

The airport in Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities, received a rating of 4.07 in 2018.

A total of 1,404 travelers participated in the survery conducted by Airports Council International (ACI).

The Brazilian airport, which can handle 22 million travelers annually, beat out the airport in Punta Cana, a resort city in the Dominican Republic, for the honor.

Punta Cana had been voted the best airport in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016 and 2017.

Tancredo Neves International Airport, moreover, will be the only Brazilian airport to receive the ASQ in 2019, with the honor being handed out at a ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, in September.

About 75 of the 100 largest airports in the world compete for the ASQ, a program created in 2006 to evaluate travelers’ perceptions and experiences at airports.

Travelers are asked to rate airports in 37 areas, with the surveys being provided in 47 languages in 91 countries.

BH Airport president Marcos Brandao said the honor from the ACI reflected “the commitment of everyone involved” with the company to “improving the quality and provision of service” at the airport, which is in Minas Gerais state.

BH Airport, a company formed by Brazil’s CCR and Switzerland’s Zurich Airport, operates Tancredo Neves International Airport.

The airport in Zurich, Switzerland, is considered one of the best in the world.

CCR, which was founded in 1999, also operates airports in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Curaçao.