Three South African airports are on Skytrax's top 100 list, but have fallen down the rankings in recent years. (Petri Oesger/Getty Images)
- This year, three South African airports made it onto Skytrax's top 100 list.
- This means that these airports are in the top 20% of airports surveyed.
- However, all of the representatives have fallen in ranking from five years ago.
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Cape Town International Airport, Oregon's Tambo International Airport and King Shaka International Airport have all fallen in the Skytrax international rankings in recent years, but remain among the world's 100 best airports.
Skytrax, the UK-based international air transport rating agency, this week released its ranking list of the world's 100 best airports for 2024. The organization says it screens more than 570 airports using customer satisfaction surveys to create the list.
Doha's Hamad International Airport tops the list, beating Singapore's Changi Airport, which topped last year's top spot.
South Africa's three airports are the only ones representing Africa on the list.
Based on this list, South Africa's airports are still in the top 20% of airports in the world, but have dropped more than 30 places in recent years.
OR Tambo's rating declined the most, dropping 47 places between 2020 and 2024.
The ranking trends over the past five years are shown below.
cape town international airport
2020:23
2024: 54
Rank drop: 31st
OR Tambo International Airport
2020: 36
2024: 83
Rank drop: 47th place
King Shaka International Airport
2020: 32
2024: 72
Rank drop: 40th place
Skytrax produces one of the most trusted and regularly published airport rankings, but the results vary widely depending on the source.
A list compiled by AirHelp last year, which combined user research and metrics such as the airport's on-time performance, found Cape Town to be the third best airport in the world in 2023.
Read | Cape Town Airport ranks third in the world in global survey
All three airports received awards at the recent Skytrax ceremony in Frankfurt. Cape Town won his Africa Best Airport award for the ninth consecutive year, winning the award as the airport with the best staff on the continent. King Shaka won the award for best regional airport and OR Tambo won the award for best airport hotel.
Airports Authority of South Africa (ACSA) CEO Mpumi Mpofu said winning the award was a very proud moment.
Mr Mpofu said: “We are successfully navigating a period of significant growth, including a rapid increase in passenger numbers and the introduction of new airlines. We would like to thank everyone involved for their partnership and support. The honor was impossible.”
Last month ACSA announced that R21.7 billion would be allocated to develop South Africa's airport infrastructure over the next five years.
This was touted as the largest airport infrastructure investment since preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
Some of the proposed changes include adding bus capacity at OR Tambo, adding baggage carousels and gates at Cape Town International Airport, and building a hotel at King Shaka.