According to the 2024 foreign visits plan of the China Civil Airports Association of China (CCAA) from September 24th to 26th, Mr. Wang Ruiping, Chairman of the Board of Governors of CCAA, led a delegation to participate in the ACI World Customer Experience Summit and the ASQ Forum on Airport Service Quality. A total of more than 30 people from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Western Airport Group, Capital Airport Group, Beijing Daxing Airport, Hebei Airport Group, Jilin Airport Group, Sichuan Tianfu Airport, as well as non-airport members such as Xinyazhong and Feiyou Technology, participated in the visit. The Summit was undertaken by Atlanta International Airport and attended by nearly 1,000 delegates from international airports, service and technology enterprises, and consulting companies worldwide.

The 71st ACI World Council Meeting was held at the same time of the summit, and Chairman Wang Ruiping attended the conference as an observer, which was the second time for the CCAA to attend the conference this year after going to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to attend the 70th Council Meeting. Deliberated and discussed at the meeting were the ACI World H1 Financial Report; the proposed dates for the ACI World Governing Body Meeting and ACI Conferences and Exhibitions; the Report of the ACI World Business Partners Advisory Board; and regional perspectives on “Facing Challenges, Opportunities, and Preferred Options”, among other things.

On the sidelines of the conference, on September 25th and September 26th, Chairman Wang Ruiping met with Mr. Luis Felipe, the former Director General of ACI World, and Mr. Justin Erbacci, the new Director General, respectively. Mr. Wang Xiaoyong, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman and General Manager of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport; Ms. Zhang Yuan, Secretary General of the Airport Association, Mr. Zhang Jingwei, Assistant to the Chairman, and Ms. Qiao Nan, Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Department, attended the meeting. Ms. Wang Ruiping thanked Felipe, the former Director General of ACI World, and his team for their visit to China in this January. Both parties signed a memorandum of cooperation, which clarified the strengthening of cooperation in terms of mutual participation in activities, the secondment of talents, the evaluation of services, carbon management, etc., and laid a very good foundation for future working contacts and practical cooperation between both sides. Ms. Wang Ruiping expressed her congratulations to the new Director General, Mr. Justin Erbacci, on his assumption of office and wished that with his rich experience in managing airports in the U.S. and working for the Star Alliance, he would lead ACI to become increasingly better globally and bring better services to his counterparts in airports worldwide. During the meeting, Ms. Wang Ruiping introduced the information on the CCAA members and the recovery of passenger and cargo transportation since the recovery from the epidemic; the situation of the two projects, namely evaluation on “carbon peaking and neutrality” of China’s airports and the evaluation of the services of China’s airports; the application of new technologies in the airports under renovation and expansion during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and the hope of promoting them to the international community. She believed that Guangzhou, China, would be the most important airport in the world in the year of 2025. Mr. Justin believes that since the signing of the MOU, the two sides have not only strengthened cooperation but also built up friendship. As carbon management is a topic of common concern for the global airport industry, it is hoped that a more detailed understanding of CCAA’s assessment practices of “carbon peaking and neutrality” will enable the two sides to find common ground for cooperation. He is also confident that China will be able to organize the service event well. Finally, Ms. Wang Ruiping said that we were invited to introduce the practice of contactless service around Chinese airports and the CCAA’s standard development, hoping that more Chinese airport standards can be recommended for use in airports around the world through ACI World.

The ASQ Conference on Airport Service Quality was held from September 25 to 26 and was divided  five themes: building the travel ecosystem, the passenger experience in airport two-class lounges, the passenger perspectives global passenger survey, artificial intelligence and passenger convenience. A total of five airports in China, including Beijing Daxing Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Changchun Airport, Shijiazhuang Airport and Zhangjiakou Airport, were honored at the ASQ Awards. Mr. Wang Xiaoyong, Chairman of the Board of Directors, shared in English the technology and service practices of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in facilitating passenger travel at the conference. Finally, as the host of the next summit, Guangzhou Airport was handed over to Atlanta Airport. The handover ceremony made all the international counterparts deeply feel the cultural heritage from China!

On the last day of the conference, Ms. Zhang Yuan, CCAA Secretary General, was invited to deliver a speech in English on the topic of “Standards Foster Our Smart Travel” throughout the ASQ Conference. In the context of the global passenger facilitation of seamless contactless services advocated, the Airport Association, d on the relevant documents of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the CCAA has clearly set out the goals of reducing direct human contact and strengthening the equipment and renovation of contactless service facilities, with the aim to provide passengers with a healthy and safe travel service. The CCAA’s group standard for Passenger Contactless Services at Civil Airports was officially released on September 2, 2023 and formally implemented from October 1, 2023 onwards. The standard grouped the whole process of contactless service  6 modules according to the functions, including “ground transportation”, “information service”, “flight service”, “commercial service”, “service facilities and auxiliary service”, and “disinfection and cleaning”. In addition, we designed the corresponding contactless service standards according to the features of each module, totaling 114 articles and 71 specific contact points. The standard uses Shenzhen Baoan Airport in China as the benchmark airport for contactless service. She hoped that through cooperation with ACI, more Chinese standards would be shared with international counterparts as reference, and the global travelers’ smart travel practice would be actively enhanced. The presentation won great attention and warm applause from the entire international audience.

In this conference, the CCAA continued to lead Guangzhou Baiyun Airport and Western Airports Group to set up booths to display China’s profound history and culture, the CCAA’s history and development, and the achievements of transportation airports in the high-quality development of civil aviation, which was warmly received by international counterparts who stopped by to exchange ideas.

The CCAA will continue to take the initiative to make its voice heard in the international arena, share the various types of services done around the construction of Type 4 airports, demonstrate the positive practice of high-quality development of China’s civil aviation, and continue to enhance the international image and influence of China’s civil aviation!