Middle East dominates World Airline Awards

At last night’s World Airline Awards held at the Aircraft Interiors Show in Hamburg Emirates picked up the award for Best Inflight Entertainment.

The award for Best Business Class went to Etihad Airways and Best Economy Class was presented to Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker signing deals to keep Qatar Airways on top at the Hamburg show

Qatar Airways also received the Best Airline – Middle East award and Turkish carrier Turkish Airlines was announced as Best Airline – Southern Europe.

While in the catering section Etihad Airways delivered the most satisfying Business Class Onboard Catering.

In the low-cost segment Air Arabia was voted by survey takers as the Best Low Cost Airline – Middle East.

Chief executive of Skytrax the company responsible for the awards Edward Plaisted said: “In demanding times the passengers become more demanding.  They are looking for more value and their expectations go up.

“Airlines need to make sure that they are keeping the lower number of passengers happy and that they all feel like valued customers.  There is a great focus to satisfy those remaining customer numbers.

“Its almost as if they are going back to basics and saying ‘we have to try harder’,” he added.  “There are the airlines that have cash reserves and are using the time as an opportunity to renew or find innovative ways of enhancing their product so that when the market recovers they are ready.”

Plaisted said that the airline industry has focused heavily on capacity expansion and that while now they may not be focusing on extra aircraft they are refocusing on the customer experience.

“Customer experience and customer loyalty is key now,” he explained.

The World Airline Awards are independent and Plaisted says the aim is to keep it that way as he looks to encompass more numbers of survey takers.

But what does the award mean for an airline?  Plaisted reckons that aside form being a great marketing tool it is has a bigger internal benefit.  “For the service development team that have spent two or three years working on the product it’s a great accolade for them to receive that recognition,” he added.

“The awards are an accurate reflection of the travelling public worldwide,” he says.  “It’s a clear benchmark for customer satisfaction.”