World's Best Airline is Qatar - for the Fourth Time

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fountainhall

World's Best Airline is Qatar - for the Fourth Time

Post by fountainhall »

The Oscars of the worldwide airline industry were awarded yesterday at the Paris Airshow. The Skytrax Airline of the Year Award went to Qatar Airways for the fourth time since 2011. In recent years the top Award has gone to Emirates in 2013 and 2016 and Cathay Pacific in 2014.

The 2017 top ten in order are –
Qatar Airways
Singapore Airlines
ANA
Emirates
Cathay Pacific
EVA
Lufthansa
Etihad
Hainan Airlines
Garuda

Since they were introduced in 2001, Emirates, Qatar and Cathay Pacific have each taken the top Award four times, Singapore Airlines three times, Asiana once and British Airways once (in 2006). The continuing rapid decline of BA to what is now effectively a low cost carrier with higher prices is reflected in all the rankings.

The first North American Airline is Air Canada at #29. The first US carrier is Delta at #32. American is at #74 and United at #78. Both the latter are beaten by Philippines Airlines at #67 and Azerbaijan Airlines at #71!

The Skytrax Awards are based on the comments of millions of passengers. My one beef about them is they are based on all classes of service. If you break them down by class, Etihad comes out top in First Class. Qatar has Best Business Class, Qantas has Best Premium Economy and THAI Best Economy Class. Japan Airlines wins for Best Economy Seat, Qantas for Best Premium Economy Seat and Singapore for Best Business Class Seat.

Air Asia again wins the World’s Best Low Cost Airline Award. An airline new to me, West Air, gets top honours for Best Low Cost Airline in China.

http://www.worldairlineawards.com
fountainhall

Re: World's Best Airline is Qatar - for the Fourth Time

Post by fountainhall »

One additional point re Qatar. As a result of the sanctions against that state, Qatar Airlines is suffering and has had two 48-hour sales over the last few weeks. If you catch those windows, fares on some routes are tumbling. In the last sale one of the biggest reductions was return business class to Edinburgh from around Bt. 150,000 to Bt. 90.000. Economy Bangkok to Amsterdam was Bt. 18,000.
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