Mumbai, September 21, 2010: Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) was voted the "Best Brown Field Airport in Public - Private Partnership" for the year 2009 in an independent survey of passengers and opinion makers conducted by the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) jointly with the Consumers Association of India. The award was handed over to Mr. Bryan Thompson, Director - Operations, MIAL, by Mr. BS Raghavan, IAS (Rtd) - Former Advisor to UN, at a ceremony in Chennai that was well attended by several dignitaries from the aviation sector.

The main parameters considered in this survey based on "Responsibilities & Rights of Airline Passengers" were service efficiency, improvement in passenger facilities, the opening of the brand new domestic Terminal 1C connecting Terminals 1A & 1B, efficient baggage handling and immigration. The survey was conducted online through the APAI website amongst its members, aviation correspondents from across India and frequent flyers from various industry bodies. The Air Passengers Association of India is India's only national, non-profit organization which is totally dedicated to the welfare of air passengers.

Commenting on CSIA securing the top honours, G V Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL) said "It is very gratifying to note that MIAL's efforts in modernizing CSIA have been widely recognized by the industry at large, given the extremely challenging operating environment that we work in. This huge vote of confidence given to us by the industry reinforces our commitment to maintain and ensure delivery of the highest standards of service at all times. We would like to thank everyone who ranked us number one this year"

Sudhakara Reddy. D, founder & National President, Air Passengers Association of India, (APAI) added "This is one of the few independent surveys that truly echoes the views of air travellers, aviation experts, and all other significant stakeholders. In fact the importance of this survey is clearly underlined by the fact that it is completely representative in nature"

This award is a reinforcement of CSIA's efforts to enhance passenger experience and underlines its status as one of India's busiest airports, currently being upgraded to cater to 40 million passengers by 2012. Between the period of April 2009 - March 2010, CSIA catered to 25.6 million passengers and 551,189 tonnes of cargo.