Auckland Airport wins top award

Passengers at Auckland Airport which has been voted the best gateway in the region. Photo / Doug Sherring

Passengers have voted Auckland Airport the top airport in the Asia Pacific region for the fifth year in a row.

The airport was also awarded the top prize for best staff service in the region for the second year running in the SKYTRAX World Airport Awards.

The awards follow a survey of 12.1 million airport customers from more than 100 different nationalities.

Auckland Airport came second globally for airports that handle 10 to 20 million passengers a year and was also named 12th best overall airport in the world.

Chairman of SKYTRAX, Edward Plaisted said the achievement was quite a remarkable.

"From our 24 years' experience in the aviation industry we know that travellers from this part of the world can be some of the most demanding in terms of their expectations and with this in mind, the staff and management at Auckland should be pleased with this excellent result."

Auckland International Airport is the country's busiest gateway and made a profit of $76.9 million in the six months ended December 31, up from $69 million a year earlier.