News: British Airways named airline of the year
Flights > News > # 875 (12/06/2006)
British Airways has won the coveted 2006 Airline of the Year in the World Airline Awards. Australian national airline Qantas were runners-up, with last year’s winners, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific.
The World Airline Awards are conducted by Skytrax and recognised as the leading independent review of passenger opinions. Skytrax compiled the poll of over 13 million passengers between September 2005 and May 2006, with factors taken into consideration including seat comfort, onboard catering, inflight entertainment and the handling of delays. BA only finished fifth in the 2005 poll, and the airline’s commercial director, Martin George, thanked customers for their vote of confidence this year.
Mr George said: “The award demonstrates yet again that British Airways is offering the service our customers expect and considered among the best performing and popular airlines in the world. We will continue to invest in our people and products to offer the excellent service our customers have come to expect.”
The rest of the top ten was dominated by Middle Eastern and Asian airlines, including Emirates, Thai Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Skytrax chief executive, Edward Plaisted, said they expected an even bigger response for the 2006/7 World Airline Survey as more language options are offered up for online completion, adding: “This past year, we were able to provide English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese versions to our Business Research Group members, and clearly it is going to be beneficial to extend that across many more customers for the upcoming survey."
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