The best way to fly

The Asian aviation industry scored another major success last week, outperforming its European and North American counterparts at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2016. 

The world’s best airline for this year is Emirates, according to the prestigious awards. 

From ANA All Nippon Airways in the Far East to Qatar Airways in the Middle East, seven airlines from Asia dominated the Top Ten Airlines list for 2016, leaving the remaining three places for Turkish Airlines, Qantas Airways and Lufthansa. 

The prestigious awards were presented at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK on July 12, rewarding industry members for their performance in such categories as “best cabin”, “best seats”, “best lounges” and “best regional airlines”.

The World Airline Awards are the primary benchmarking tools for passenger satisfaction levels throughout the world, according to Skytrax. This year’s awards were based on a total of 19.2 million completed surveys covering 280 airlines, by customers hailing from more than 104 countries.

Thai Airways International, which has been out of the Top 10 since 2012, has made something of a comeback, rising from No 19 to No 13. It was also named the World’s Most Improved Airline, which reflects how hard the company has worked to get its services back on track.

“These awards are a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone at Thai Airways International. They have devoted great attention to detail in providing service to passengers and showed their determination to better the airline to ensure improved customer satisfaction,” said THAI’s president Charamporn Jotikasthira.

The airline’s premium Lounge Spa facility in Bangkok was also honoured with an award for Best Airline Lounge Spa Facility. 

Thailand’s flag carrier also looked competitive in the areas of World’s Best Cabin Staff (No 4), World’s Best Airport Services (No 4) and World’s Best Inflight Entertainment (No 6). 

Bangkok Airways, a premium regional airline in Thailand, was named as the World’s Best Regional Airline for the second time. The carrier was also declared Best Regional Airline in Asia. 

“As a Thai national carrier, we are extremely delighted and proud to have received the awards which truly reflect a higher level of service and safety standards in Thai aviation”, said Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways.

 “And as a carrier, these achievements have fully manifested our continuous commitment to strive for excellence in airline services.”

Asiana Airlines Economy Class cabin achieved a clean sweep in winning the awards for World’s Best Economy Class, Best Economy Class seat and Best Economy Class catering. This was the second successive year the airline had secured the award for best overall Economy Class. 

Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia achieved its most significant success securing the top prize of World’s Best Cabin Staff for the third straight year. 

However, on the World’s Top 100 Airlines chart, Garuda Indonesia dropped from No 8 in last year’s survey to No 11. 

And when it comes to the World’s Best Low Cost Airline, AirAsia continued to make it a one-horse race. So confident was it of earning the award that AirAsia flew its Airbus A320 at the Farnborough Airshow with “8-Time World’s Best Low Cost Airline” painted on its fuselage ahead of the announcement.

The airline’s confidence wasn’t misplaced, as AirAsia did indeed win World’s Best Low Cost Airline for the eighth consecutive year. 

Star Alliance was named the World’s Best Airline Alliance, and also secured the Best Airline Alliance Lounge award for the second successive year for its Los Angeles Airport facility. 

 “I am accepting this award on behalf of the more than 430,000 employees who deliver our customer promise to more than 640 million passengers each year,” said Mark Schwab, Star Alliance’s chief executive. 

“Regaining this accolade shows that investing in technology, which facilitates the delivery of our Alliance customer benefits, is paying off and that travellers are noticing a difference.”

 

TOP TEN AIRLINES OF 2016

 1 Emirates

 2 Qatar Airways

 3 Singapore Airlines

 4 Cathay Pacific

 5 ANA All Nippon Airways

 6 Etihad Airways

 7 Turkish Airlines

 8 EVA Air

 9 Qantas Airways

10 Lufthansa