BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HEBRON -- A visitor at Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport recently approached airport employee Diane Price to ask about the people wearing bright blue sweaters working at the international arrival area.
"I told her briefly about our ambassadors program, and she told me she was so impressed with the way the ambassadors treated passengers," Ms. Price recalled. "She said they were so friendly and cheerful and did everything they could to help."
Airport officials point to the ambassadors, a group of retirees some 170 strong, as one of the reasons the airport recently received a high international-passenger rating for service for the second straight year from a survey conducted by the International Air Transport Association.
The survey ranked Cincinnati first among U.S. airports of its size for international passenger service and convenience. The airport ranked fourth in the world in the 15-25 million passenger-per-year category, the only U.S. airport in the top five ranking.
"Our ambassador program is 4 years old, and it's a tremendous success," said Ms. Price, a spokeswoman who works with the ambassadors. "We have ambassadors in all areas of the airport, including international." Hazel and Ed Hackman of Lakeside Park have been with the ambassador program since it began. They guide arriving international passengers through the first phase of the immigration check-station process, helping people fill out the information cards that are then examined by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers.
"There are different documents for residents and non-residents," Mr. Hackman explained. "We try to make sure that the passengers have the correct cards, and that they are in the proper lines as they pass through immigration."
Betty Nordman of Florence, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Germany and speaks the language fluently, works the immigration lines answering questions and placing people in the proper lines.
"It's nice when I can help people who don't speak English," she said. "This is a fun job. If it wasn't, I wouldn't do it."
Ted Bushelman, the airport's communications director, noted several reasons why the airport has received such a high ranking from international passengers for two years.
"The survey (answered by about 78,000 airline passengers at 62 airports) asks questions about many things, like how easy it is to make connecting flights, how good are the eating and shopping facilities, and about the washrooms," he said.
The customs facilities are conveniently located, and "people seem to like our restaurants and shops."
