Changi Airport frontline staff honoured for exceptional service

Changi Airport Group (CAG) conferred its highest honours today to outstanding staff of the airport community. These are the staff that have gone beyond the call of duty and demonstrated exceptional service contributions in 2014, leaving deep and lasting impressions on both local and international passengers travelling through Changi Airport.

Taking on a special theme – 'Home' – in commemoration of Singapore's 50th birthday this year, the Annual Airport Celebration ceremony held at The Ritz-Carlton today, saw 24 awards presented to recipients across five categories – ‘Outstanding Service Staff’, ‘Outstanding Service Team’, ‘Outstanding Custodial Staff’, ‘Service Partner of the Year’ and the prized ‘Service Personality of the Year’.

Speaking at the event, Guest-of-Honour, Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Transport, acknowledged that while 2014 had been a trying year for aviation, he was heartened to see the airport community rallying together amid the challenges and continuing to deliver the high standards of service that Changi Airport is synonymous with.

Going beyond the call of duty

The recipient of the 2014 „Service Personality of the Year’ award was Mr Mohd Jumatdi Bin Ayub, a supervisor with Changi Airport's ground-handling agent, dnata Singapore. The 58-year old first came upon several unclaimed baggage at the Arrival Services office in May last year. Curious as to whom they belonged to, Jumatdi followed-up with a check with the airline and learned that an elderly Indonesian couple had been offloaded from their flight to Jeddah after the husband had suffered a stroke en-route from Surabaya and was later conveyed to Changi General Hospital.

Concerned over the couple's welfare, Jumatdi made the effort to obtain the passengers' contact information and whereabouts, and delivered their baggage to them immediately. Besides making repeated visits to the hospital, getting in touch with the couple's son in Surabaya and offering himself as the point of contact for the elderly couple, Jumatdi also became the family‟s pillar of support over their three-week stay in Singapore. He eventually coordinated with the airline, tour agent, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority as well as the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore to help make the necessary arrangements for the couple‟s return flight home.

The family later requested for an early discharge from hospital to reduce their expenses. Out of concern for Mr Karnadi's health, Jumatdi personally drove the family to the airport after Mr Karnadi was discharged and saw that they got onto their flight safely.

Focused on customers and staff

For its commitment to service excellence and staff development, Certis CISCO Aviation Security (CAS) was presented the 'Service Partner of the Year’ award for the second year running. The award winner is assessed based on the company‟s commitment to service excellence, level of emphasis placed on staff development and overall improvements made over the past year.

CAS manages a team of about 2,500 aviation security officers who perform various security, patrolling and screening functions across Changi Airport. Over the past year, it has introduced several new customer-centric initiatives to raise the bar in terms of service standards.

One such example is the new Quality and Learning Management Centre set up by CAS which consolidates its institutional knowledge to bring about overall higher levels of service delivery. A performance monitoring facility helps them to keep an eye on the performance of frontline officers at key passenger touch points, ensuring that service standards are maintained at all times and service recovery can be carried out swiftly when needed. Through the provision of an easily accessible e-learning facility, CAS also encourages staff to constantly upgrade their skill-sets by picking up both functional skills as well as useful service tips. The e-learning platform has also been expanded to mobile devices to empower staff to learn at their own convenience.

CAS also invested in a Fault Reporting & Service Handling (FRESH) Centre which was launched last year. The new system allows its staff to conveniently report any faults or defects at their work environment across the airport's terminals on-the-go. This enables the airport to rectify the problem expeditiously, reducing the impact on security operations and minimising potential inconvenience to passengers.

Paying close attention to staff engagement, CAS has in place several incentives and recognition schemes to recognise staff commitment to service performance and excellence. To enhance staff welfare, additional feedback channels have also been established over the past year, utilising e-mail and Whatsapp to facilitate dialogue between staff and management.

Service excellence a hallmark of Changi through the years

Mr Lee Seow Hiang, CEO of CAG said, “Over the past 34 years, Changi Airport has changed dramatically. We started with a single passenger terminal and will have a fourth come 2017, with the iconic Jewel Changi Airport also in the pipeline. Passenger traffic has also grown significantly over the years and today, we serve an average of 148,000 passengers daily.”

“But amid all the transformational changes, one thing has remained constant at Changi Airport – placing the passenger at the heart of all we do. Together with our airline and airport partners, our efforts have always been geared towards providing a personalised, stress-free and positively surprising experience for all our passengers and the awards presented tonight honour those who help us to fulfill this mission. We are grateful to the airport community for its continuous support and may their actions continue to inspire others,” Mr Lee added.

With more than 470 Best Airport awards under its belt, Changi Airport remains the most awarded airport in the world. It received 26 awards in 2014, including the Best Airport in the World title by Business Traveller for 27 consecutive years, and the World‟s Best Airport award by Skytrax for the second year running.