SYDNEY Airport has lifted its quality of service rating from poor to satisfactory for the first time since the consumer watchdog began monitoring the aeronautical industry 12 years ago.
But the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, said the level of service at the country's busiest airport remained a concern.
''Airlines' ratings of Sydney airport's quality of service improved to satisfactory in the most recent period,'' the commission's report said. ''While this is a positive sign, it follows reports of unsatisfactory service standards over many years which, when considered alongside continually increasing prices and profits, raised cause for concern about the airport's performance.''
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Sydney Airport recorded the highest number of passengers of any Australian airport, with 36.3 million people passing through the arrival and departure gates in 2010-11. The airport also recorded the highest revenue of $524.8 million. Revenue from car parking alone topped $98 million for the period.
The ACCC rates the country's five biggest international airports' quality of service by surveying airlines, passengers and border agencies. Aspects examined in the report card include the availability and standard of check-in facilities used by the airlines and surveys of passengers' experiences when passing through security screening points.
Mr Sims said because passengers' perceptions of their experiences at airports could also be coloured by the level of service provided by their airline and their treatment by customs and immigration officers, the airlines' ratings gave a more accurate picture of an airport's quality of service.
Sydney Airport's overall rating for service was 3.66 out of 5 - the lowest of all five airports - while the rating airlines gave the airport was even lower, at 3.15. Only Perth recorded a poorer airline rating than Sydney.
A statement issued by Sydney Airport's chief executive, Kerrie Mather, yesterday said the company took service quality seriously. ''[We] were pleased that we achieved our highest ratings in many years. We anticipate that our recent introduction of regular, internal service monitoring will further improve our service quality,'' the statement said.
Sydney Airport still has the highest hourly rate for car parking in the country, but Ms Mather noted it was one of only two airports in the country that did not increase parking rates over the 2010-2011 period.
Mr Sims said it was interesting to note that with the exception of Melbourne Airport, which had undergone a considerable re-investment in services over the period, all other airports' revenues had continued to increase at a significantly greater rate than their operating expenses, despite the global financial crisis and a number of natural disasters which had hit the airlines hard.
There was a suggestion that airlines were in fact insulating the airports' risks and returns over the past few years, he said.
While monitoring was limited in its scope to make a detailed assessment of an airports' overall performance and could not be used to conclusively establish whether the airports' had earned monopoly profits, Mr Sims said the ACCC had ''observed outcomes that would be expected of unconstrained monopolies''
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Airport lifts its game but not enough to please ACCC