Qatar Airways is flying high this year, having knocked Singapore Airlines off its top perch to take the honor of being the world’s best airline for 2019. This marks its fifth time receiving the accolade from research firm Skytrax after winning in 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2017 — and it’s the first one to do so ever since the rankings debuted in 1999. The carrier also picked up awards for World’s Best Business Class and Best Airline in the Middle East.
In the top 10, dominated as usual by Asian and Middle Eastern airlines, Singapore Airlines dropped a notch to runner-up, while Japan’s All Nippon Airways stayed in third place. Cathay Pacific Airways rose two notches to take fourth position, and Emirates fell one spot to fifth place, followed by Eva Air, Hainan Airlines, Qantas Airways, Lufthansa, and Thai Airways.
At the bottom of the barrel, the last five spots on the top 100 list went to S7 Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Flynas, Air China, and Icelandair.
In other categories, Eva Air was named the world’s cleanest airline, Emirates had the best inflight entertainment, and AirAsia and Jetstar Airways received awards for being the best low-cost airlines in Asia and Australia & Pacific respectively. When it came to best airline catering, Eva Air was top in economy, Austrian Airlines in premium economy, ANA All Nippon Airways in business, and Air France in first class.
If airline seats are what matter most to you, Japan Airlines got a nod for its economy ones, Virgin Atlantic for premium economy, Qatar Airways for business, and Singapore Airlines for first class.
Our national carrier was also hailed as the best airline in Asia and took fourth spot on the list of cleanest airlines.
Now in its 19th year, the World Airline Awards are based on customer surveys done by Skytrax, with more than 20 million entries from 100 different nationalities recorded between September 2018 and May 2019 for this year’s rankings.
