Spotlighting Our Champions: How Istanbul Grand Airport Won the "Overall Winner "

It's always a pleasure to see an organisation enter the awards and achieve tremendous success. And we want to share one of those stories with you today.

At last year's International CXA® , Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) achieved something astonishing. Not only did they win in one of our most popular categories - Customers at the Heart of Everything™ - but they also took home the highest honour of the awards, becoming our Overall Winner.

What did they do right?

In an effort to make the airport truly inclusive, IGA introduced a set of policies to guarantee that all passengers are treated equally and that all their needs are met. They conducted thorough research into passenger accessibility, and consulted all major stakeholders to ensure no stone was left unturned. This enabled them to locate specific areas that require improvement and introduce appropriate policies.

The accessibility features were designed to help each sensitive group, from people with autism, dementia or anxiety disorders to those passengers that use sign language or wish to stay away from the airport crowd.

What results did they achieve?

Since these new policies were introduced, IGA received three times fewer annual complaints, which is a staggering achievement given that their annual number of passengers is 20 million! Not only that, but they also received praise from the Autism Association of Turkey and good feedback from visually impaired guests who say that they feel safe at the airport thanks to the new accessibility features.

This initiative received incredibly high scores from the judging panel. In most sections, the scores went over 90% - meaning IGA were crowned Overall Winner of the awards. Their CX story is truly inspirational, and we can all learn from it.