Air New Zealand has cemented its reputation as one of the world’s top leading airlines taking the title of Airline of the Year 2017 for the fourth year in a row in a new ranking.
The flagship carrier for New Zealand topped the leaderboard in the latest edition of AirlineRatings.com’s ranking of the World’s Top 10 Airlines 2017 for its record-breaking financial performance, in-flight innovations, safety record, environmental leadership and staff.
“Quite simply Air New Zealand is an airline of first choice. And given the airline’s location and the country’s size, its performance is even more remarkable,” said editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas in a statement.
It’s the fourth consecutive win for the carrier. To determine the rankings, editors look at how carriers performed across four major international industry and government audits, plus an additional nine criteria, including fleet age, passenger review ratings, profitability, investment rating and key product offerings.
Over the last year, Air New Zealand launched new international routes linking Auckland to Vietnam and the Philippines, and rolled out enhanced in-flight entertainment features that greet passengers by name and allows them to purchase food, drink and merchandise from their seatback using their Airpoints Dollars.
The system, which was also recognised for working much like a smartphone app, won innovation awards at the Air Passenger Experience Awards (APEX) last month.
The carrier also grabbed headlines this year with a safety video featuring US comedian Anna Faris in a movie genre montage.
Other big winners this year include Qantas, which won the title of best domestic airline service, best catering and best lounges.
When it comes to best cabin crew, that title went to all three Virgin airlines (Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America).
Best in-flight entertainment went to Emirates.
For the Americas, Delta Air Lines was named the best for long haul travel; Virgin Atlantic best in Europe; Etihad Airways best in Middle East and Africa; and Singapore Airlines took the title for Asia/Pacific.
The best low-cost carriers for value and safety include Virgin America for the Americas; Norwegian for Europe; Kulula.com for Africa/Middle East and Scoot for Asia/Pacific.
Here are the top 10 airlines 2017:
1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Singapore Airlines
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Australia
6. British Airways
7. Etihad Airways
8. All Nippon Airways
9. Eva Air
10. Lufthansa
