Malta International Airport has been declared ‘Winner of the ACI Europe Best Airport Award 2010 in the up to five million passengers category.

The award was presented to Chief Executive Officer Julian Jaeger by Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World, for MIA’s excellent and innovative entry, reflecting the airport’s serious progress across the range of competition criteria, according to an official statement by ACI.

The 6th annual ACI Europe Best Airport Awards were announced on Thursday night in Milan during the gala dinner of the 20th ACI Europe annual congress. It was the conclusion to a day of intensive exchanges and debates between more than 400 top industry representatives, national governments and EU officials, under the theme of this year’s event ‘A 20-year vision of the airports of 2030’.

ACI Europe counts more than 400 airports in 46 European countries among its membership and this year’s competition saw a high level of entries in each of the four categories.

The ACI Europe Best Airport Awards cover four categories of airport and aim to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, retail, security and environmental awareness.

The winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Lyon Airport. The airport excels in all the key areas of operations, however the judges were very impressed by its concrete commitments in the area of environmental awareness and its excellent approach to relations with the local community.

This year’s award in the ‘10-25 million passenger’ category went to Manchester Airport, selected by the jury due to its ability to ‘add real substance’ to everything it undertakes, with particular mention of its approach to airport security.

Ultimately, it is the airport’s ‘passion for excellence in all that they do’ that singled Manchester Airport out as the winner in this category.

The ‘over 25 million passengers’ category went to Barcelona Airport which won praise from all of the judges for its magnificent new facilities, officially opened in the past year. Barcelona Airport’s ambitious 100 million environment investment plan also impressed the jury, along with their extremely valuable collaboration with disability groups.

This year’s awards also saw the introduction of a new award, the Eco-Innovation Award, which is awarded by the independent Advisory Board of Airport Carbon Accreditation. The award is aimed at highlighting outstanding environmental performance and an innovative approach to environmental management. This year saw two airports from opposite corners of Europe announced as joint winners:

Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Izmir Adnan Menderes International Airport.

Julian Jaeger’s reaction soon after receiving the award expressed satisfaction and gratitude for the efforts of all those who contributed towards this success. “In these circumstances, I would first of all thank the MIA staff without whose dedication this award would not have been achieved. I would also like to thank all the stakeholders who supported our initiative in order to make possible the improvements that have materialised”.

The 2009 Best Airport Award winners were:

• Over 25 million category – Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

• 10-25 million category – Palma de Mallorca Airport

• 5-10 million category – TAV Ankara Esenboğa Airport

• Under five million category – Aeroporto G.Marconi Di Bologna SpA