São Paulo – Qatar Airways was voted best airline in the world in 2015 by the annual ranking of consulting firm Skytrax, which is based on passenger ratings. According to this year’s edition, released this Tuesday (16th) in Paris, one of the Doha-based company’s strong suits is its executive class seats, the best in the world. “It is probably no coincidence that this award has coincided with the introduction of the A380 and A350 aircraft into the Qatar Airways fleet,” reads the statement from Skytrax. It also says passengers have said these aircraft have ushered in new standards of comfort, space and privacy.
This year’s edition saw the top five remain the same as last year, but in switched positions. Qatar Airways, which is also the best in the Middle East, climbed from second to first this year, and Singapore Airlines rose to second place after ranking third in 2014. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific, which won last year, is now placed third. Turkish Airlines, from Turkey, outdid Emirates Airline and went from fifth in 2014 to fourth in 2015. Dubai’s Emirates is now the fifth best. Etihad Airways, from Abu Dhabi, went from ninth in 2014 to sixth this year.
Of the top ranking UAE-based airlines, Emirates Airline was voted for best onboard entertainment and best first-class amenity kit. Etihad won best first class and best first-class menu.
In seventh place in the overall ranking is the Japanese company ANA, followed by Garuda Indonesia, EVA Air, from Taiwan, and Qantas Airways, from Australia. The best-ranked South American company, among the top 100, is Chilean LAN in 32nd place. Brazilian Azul was chosen as the best low-cost airline in South America. In the overall ranking, it took the 62nd place.
Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, said that he was honored to lead an airline that “has paved such an accomplished path to excellence and innovation, demonstrating the team’s unwavering pride in their work and the experience provided to each of our passengers”.
According to Skytrax, the survey was done in September 2014 and May 2015 with 18.89 million passengers. The ranking is based on the evaluation of 41 questions from flight experience and this year had the participation of people from 105 nationalities that evaluated 245 airlines.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
