Abu Dhabi International Airport has been voted the "Best Airport for the Middle East region" for last year by an international passenger survey.
The Airports Council International (ACI) awards also saw passengers vote the airport as showing the best improvement in 2012.
ACI Airport Service Quality Survey (ASQ) winners are all voted for by passengers, and the awards are regarded as a key benchmark for customer service in the global airports' industry.
The awards, announced by ACI in Montreal, Canada, showed that Abu Dhabi International Airport had excelled in categories that measure operational efficiency and quality of service, to place the airport first in the Middle East, taking the title from Dubai International Airport. Abu Dhabi International Airport was ranked second last year.
Since its creation in 2006, the ASQ Awards have become the leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark with more than 275 airports participating.
"Airports that deliver superior customer service stand apart from the competition and superior customer service remains one of the most important differentiators in the increasingly competitive airport industry," said the ACI world director general, Angela Gittens.
Dubai International Airport, slipped to second place in the survey, while the the airporst in the Qatari capital, Doha, came third.
Abu Dhabi International Airport, which sees more than 12 million passengers each year, recorded the largest improvement in passenger satisfaction, scoring 4.4, up from 4.31 in 2011 when it was ranked second behind Dubai.
The other best airports per region were Cape Town for Africa, Seoul Incheon in the Asia-Pacific, Moscow Sheremetyevo in Europe, Cancun for Latin-America-Caribbean, and Indianapolis for North America.
