South Africa is home to the three best airports in Africa, according to Skytrax’s latest 2021/22 World Airport Survey, announced on Thursday.

Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) was voted as the best airport in Africa, followed by King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) at number two and OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) at number three.

On a global level, CTIA was ranked forty-ninth out of 100 airports surveyed, a drop from its position of 33 that it held last year. KSIA slipped to fifty-ninth, from fifty-second last year and ORTIA fell to the seventy-first position, from 54 last year.

The world’s top three airports, the Hamad International Airport, in Doha, Qatar, the Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, and the Changi Airport in Singapore, in that respective order, all held their positions. Narita International Airport, also in Tokyo was voted the fourth best in the world and Incheon International Airport, in Seoul, South Korea, the fifth best.

The World Airport Awards are voted on by customers in the largest, yearly global airport customer satisfaction survey. They are regarded as the quality benchmark for the world airport industry, assessing customer service and facilities across over 550 airports.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) Medical Advisory Group over the past two years emphasised the cleaning and disinfection of airports as a way of providing “reassurance to passengers and increasing their confidence in flying”.

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) says that this is something that it has been committed to, and during the awards ceremony, five of its airports made it to the top ten cleanest airports in Africa.

ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu expressed her delight at the numerous accolades ACSA airports received, and sid that this recognition was a testament to the hard work invested by employees across the airports.

“The past two years have been the most challenging for airports, but our commitment as ACSA to providing state-of-the-art airports has not once wavered.

“Together with the ACSA family we constantly strive to ensure our airport users get the best experience when they are at our airports, and these significant achievements are indicative of all the hard work that is invested by everyone at ACSA. From the trolley operator, security personnel, cleaning staff, right up to the management team,” Mpofu acclaims.

KSIA, Bram Fischer International Airport, Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport, and King Phalo Airport were recognised as part of the top six Best Regional Airports in Africa.