The second edition of the Aviation Business Excellence Awards (ABEA) took place on Friday, November 15, 2019 where Swissport Kenya Limited was crowned ABEA 2019 company of the year.
The Hilton Garden Inn, which was ABEA 2019 company of the year first runners up also emerged top in the hospitality Services – hotels category. The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) won in the government services category followed by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Feted at an African themed gala dinner held at the Emara-Ole Sereni Hotel and which was attended by over 350 industry stakeholders, Swissport also won in the ground handling services category. Trade Winds Aviation Services were first runners up.
Speaking at the event, Alex Gitari, the acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said;
“Since ABEA 2018, we continue to see a growing interest in participating companies. I am happy to note that of the 65 companies who submitted entries for ABEA 2019, 32 duly completed the nomination process with 16 companies coming back for the second time. This is a clear demonstration of the value the industry is starting to derive from the ABEA initiative.”
Other notable winners of the night included DB Schenker in the customs agents category, Maya Duty Free in the retail shops services category and Express Travel Group in the ground transport services category.
Paul Caffe Kenya was victorious in the hospitality services – restaurants category with Kenya Airways claiming the prize for airline services – cargo category. Etihad Airways emerged victorious in the airline services – passenger category.
ABEA 2019 follows the successful launch of ABEA in May 2018 and which culminated in the inaugural ABEA gala dinner in November 2018, where 19 organizations completed the nomination process out of the 39 that submitted entries.
ABEA 2019 sought to assess participating companies based on three determinants 1. Leadership and Management, 2. Human Resource focus and 3. Customer Orientation and Marketing. ABEA is sponsored by the KAA and managed and moderated by the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) in a partnership arrangement.
Murithi Ndegwa, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer KIM said the ABEA business self-assessment tool was developed based on the KIM Organizational Performance Index (OPI) framework for the evaluation of the performance of the participating organizations.
“Through OPI, ABEA participating organisations were rated on a scale of 1-10, according to their performance and competitiveness. This model sets a minimum score that an organisation must attain to remain competitive and the rating is determined following a rigorous internal and external assessment process”. he said.
Ndegwa explained that each organisation’s processes were assessed and combined with its business results using a weighted formula to determine the scores for a set of global determinants and sectoral indicators.
He added that, the nomination and selection judging panel included experts from the aviation industry, based on their experience and insights on the sector and which was a recommendation from ABEA 2018.
Some of the objectives of ABEA include; improving the customer experience journey at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), while recognizing and encouraging learning and best practices within the industry with a view to making all the industry players more competitive.
ABEA aims to reach about 120 stakeholders in the aviation sector, with a vision to become a premier aviation excellence award in Africa.
