World

The world’s best airlines for 2017

This airline does not like losing

News Desk November 15, 2016

A Delta Airlines Embraer 175, with Tail Number N604CZ, lands at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. PHOTO: REUTERS

Air New Zealand has been named the 2017 Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com in its Airline Excellence Awards for “record-breaking financial performance, award-winning in-flight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and motivation of its staff.”

“In our objective analysis Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance,” said AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas. The airline has won the title for the fourth time in a row.

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AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards programme combines four major international industry and government audits, with another nine key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger review ratings, profitability, investment rating and key product offerings.

Following this criteria, the Best First Class Award went to Etihad Airways for the third time. “Etihad’s commitment to excellence appears to know no bounds. The airline’s new first class and business blass offerings are quite stunning and have set the bar even higher in luxury travel,” said Thomas.

The 'Best Business Class' title was won by Virgin Australia, which according to AirlineRatings.com, is more “first class than business class.” If you prefer flying economy, according to the website, you will get the best value for money with Singapore Airlines.

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Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America won the award for 'Best Cabin Crew', while Qantus won 'Best Catering', as well as the 'Best Lounges 'category. Emirates was on the list of winners for having the best in-flight entertainment.

AirlineRatings.com's top 10 airlines for 2017:

1. Air New Zealand