Brussels, 22/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 June 2009, the 5th Annual (Airports Council International) ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards were announced during the gala dinner of the 19th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress. The awards cover 4 categories of airport and aim to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, retail, security and environmental awareness (the ranking is awarded on the basis of the number of passengers annually transited by the airport). The first award, recognising airports in the '1-5 million passenger' category, went to Aeroporto G. Marconi Di Bologna SpA for being 'a great all-rounder' in operations, retail, community engagement and airline relations. winner of the '5-10 million passenger'category was TAV Ankara Esenboða Airport. The judges singled it out for its work in the area of environmental innovation, securing an incredible 25% energy savings. This year's award in the third group, '10-25 million passenger'category went to Palma de Mallorca Airport for its success in defying the seasonality associated with its status as a holiday destination and its strong relations with its airline customers. And in the final category, for airports with 'over 25 million passengers', this year's final ACI EUROPE Best Airport award went to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, particularly commending the airport for its “barrier of silence”, which will help minimise noise. The awards were presented to winning airports by Dr Yiannis Paraschis, President of ACI EUROPE and Chief Executive Officer of Athens International Airport, Mike Davies, Chairman of Manchester Airports Group, David McMillan, Director General EUROCONTROL and Daniel Calleja, Director Air Transport, European Commission. (A.By./trans/rh)