Siliguri, June 15: Bagdogra airport has been awarded a certificate for its quality management.

The ISO 9001: 2000 certification, which is a seal of approval of International Organisation for Standardisation, says that the services provided at the airport meet well-defined standards of quality and consistency.

“The certificate arrived today,” said airport director K.K. Bhaumik. “A team from International Certification Services Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai firm authorised to assess and issue certificates on behalf of the organisation, visited Bagdogra in April. Its members inspected various services and facilities over three-four days,” he said.

“They raised a few points of non-compliance with the requirements which were rectified,” he added. The areas examined included types of airport services and their quality, passenger amenities, infrastructure and security standards.

The certification is for “quality management systems” and is valid for six months after which another inspection will be carried out, the director added.

Bhaumik said the achievement is a result of the cooperation of all the 42 staff members of Airports Authority of India (AAI), the CISF personnel and other employees. Bagdogra and Guwahati are among the few AAI airports in eastern India that have got the certification.

In March this year, the AAI signed a memorandum of understanding with the civil aviation ministry for activities to be carried out in 2007-08. Achieving customer satisfaction of at least 77 per cent and getting ISO certification for 11 AAI airports in India were part of the agreement.

ISO certification requires that a company/organisation set up and document all of its procedures including the procurement and storage of material, manufacture and delivery of products, employee training and customer support, airport sources said.