A Mishmash of Rights and Wrongs – Skytrax Announces The 2019 World Airline Awards

Since 2001, Skytrax has held the World Airline Awards, ranking airlines in a variety of different method. Skytrax is probably the most well known (and pretty accurate) airline ranker in the world. Yesterday, Skytrax announced the 2019 World Airline Awards. Categories include the world’s best airlines, the best airlines for a specific cabin class, best cabin crew, best seats, etc. Skytrax ranks airlines through consumer polling in a large variety of areas. The results from the polls that occur are then weighted based on the airline’s size and the number of responses submitted. This does mean that the awards aren’t purely based on consumer polls, but that Skytrax also does ultimately itself decide the awards. Airlines also promote the polls themselves, so airlines that promote it more are more likely to get higher rankings. The World Airline Awards shouldn’t be confused with Skytrax’s rankings of individual airlines on a 1 to 5-star scale.

Airline rankings are very subjective in numerous ways. Someone might have a positive experience on an airline because of an excellent cabin crew, but someone else might have had an equally negative experience because of delays or a rude crew member. Airline service, meals, and customer satisfaction are hard to measure. You also have to then take into account the things that are easier to rank, such as airline seats or mechanical delays. Overall, there is no one list of best airlines that is right or wrong. I disagree with Skytrax on a large number of their rankings, although I agree with them on a lot also. In this article, I’ll list some of the winners and losers from these rankings, but will also “judge the judgers” on areas where Skytrax is right or wrong.

World’s Best Airlines

A large part of Skytrax’s World Airline Awards is ranking the world’s top 100 airlines. Here’s their list of the top ten airlines:

1. Qatar Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. All Nippon Airways (ANA)
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Emirates
6. EVA Air
7. Hainan Airlines
8. Qantas Airways
9. Lufthansa
10. Thai Airways

I generally can agree with the top five airlines of this list. Qatar Airways almost undoubtedly has the world’s best business class, has a consistent and exceptional onboard soft product, and also has a fantastic economy class product. Singapore Airlines at number two has one of the world’s best (probably the best) first class seats (a full bed and a full recliner seat) and also is known for their exceptional service. Singapore was also named the world’s best airline of 2018. ANA is ranked number three, which is probably not too far off – their business class seats are good but not industry leading, and I had a great experience with them when I flew them a few years ago.

Cathay Pacific also has good long-haul premium cabin seats and is also known for its great lounges in Hong Kong and its great soft product. Emirates has a fantastic soft product in its premium cabins, has onboard showers and a full bar/lounge on its A380s, has the world’s first fully enclosed suite with doors (up to the top of the cabin) on its new 777s with virtual windows, and lounges the full length of the terminal in Dubai. However, its business class on their 777s, for the most part, has angled seats, although a few aircraft have flatbed seats, and all are in a 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 configuration.

I start to disagree with the rankings from 5-10. Firstly, EVA Air has angled seats on some of its shorter long-haul routes, although besides that it has a pretty good reputation and has good business class seats. I haven’t flown on Hainan Airlines, although I have flown on their subsidiary Hong Kong Airlines, where the experience wasn’t amazing but was satisfactory. Hainan has pretty good flatbed business class seats on all of its long-haul aircraft, although about half of them don’t have all aisle access. I have flown on Qantas’ 747 long-haul business class, where the seats weren’t that good for an ultra-long-haul flight as they weren’t 100% fully flat (although they have better ones on their A330 and 787) and the soft product wasn’t even as good as on United’s pre-Polaris product. Although who knows, that was four years ago – maybe they have changed significantly for the better. In 10th is Thai Airways, which does have flatbed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration on most of its long-haul flights, although on most of its medium-haul and some of its long-haul flights, it only has angle-flat seats. Their soft product seems to be okay, although not world leading.

Backtracking to 9th place, Lufthansa definitely does not deserve that ranking. My personal experiences in Lufthansa’s economy class haven’t been that great. I haven’t flown in their long-haul business class (although I had a guest reviewer fly it), and knowing it from multiple people, their long-haul business class doesn’t have great seats (only a 2-2-2 configuration) and the soft product isn’t good, service is not exceptional in business class, and first class has seats that aren’t private enough to be considered a world class product. However, the one thing that Lufthansa succeeds at is its First Class Terminal (yes, it’s a full and private terminal only for first class) which is probably the best (or one of the best) first class lounges in the world. Skytrax constantly overrates Lufthansa, giving them a 5-star rating (maybe they deserve 4 stars, but definitely not 5) and they were also awarded the best airline for every cabin class (except for premium economy) in Europe.

Best North American Airlines

You probably noticed that (rightfully) no North American airlines were in the top 10 list (and for that matter, none were in the top 20 or 30). Here’s their list of the top North American airlines. I also put in what place each airline was ranked worldwide in the list.

1. Air Canada (ranked 31 worldwide)
2. JetBlue Airways (ranked 40 worldwide)
3. Delta Air Lines (ranked 41 worldwide)
4. Southwest Airlines (ranked 47 worldwide)
5. Alaska Airlines (ranked 54 worldwide)
6. WestJet (ranked 55 worldwide)
7. Air Transat (ranked 60 worldwide)
8. United Airlines (ranked 68 worldwide)
9. American Airlines (ranked 74 worldwide)
10. Porter Airlines (ranked 82 worldwide)
11. Hawaiian Airlines (ranked 83 worldwide)
12. American Eagle (ranked 84 worldwide)
13. Air Canada Rouge (ranked 92 worldwide)

No other North American airlines made it into the top 100 airlines of North America, and Skytrax is prevented from listing any airlines worse than the top 100. I actually generally do agree with most of this list. It is believable that Air Canada is ranked number one, as they have a consistent business class hard product, have personal on-demand entertainment on all mainline aircraft, and have a sit-down restaurant in Toronto for business class passengers. Air Canada was awarded the best North American business class, the most clean airline in North America, and several other awards. JetBlue is ranked number two, which also makes sense given that they have generally good customer satisfaction, low prices, personal on-demand on all aircraft, and a fantastic medium haul business class with closed suites. At third, Delta Air Lines is generally ranked above American and United due to having consistently better service, closed suites on some routes in business class, and are adding personal on-demand entertainment to aircraft, instead of taking it away, as such on United and America. Delta wasn’t awarded many special awards, besides having the best staff and cabin crew in North America.

At fourth place comes Southwest, which does have a huge fanbase and does have an almost 100% consistent onboard product. I recently had a mishap flying with them where they accidentally canceled my ticket when I changed another flight in the same reservation (it was their fault, not mine). The agent that fixed it and eventually gave me a ticket on the flight (without the early bird check-in that I paid for and TSA Pre-Check which I also paid for) was rude and clueless. I am now personally a bit prejudiced against Southwest because of this incident, although overall even with that, I wouldn’t rank them much further down on the list, simply because most of the time, you know what you’re going to get on Southwest. Southwest was also ranked as the best low-cost carrier in North America.

Alaska was ranked as number five, which I don’t have a problem with, although they are taking away personal TVs and comfortable recliner seats from their ex-Virgin America planes. WestJet is ranked number six. That makes sense because they just introduced their 787s which have their first ever business class product (which based on reviews is excellent). They are transitioning from a low-cost carrier to a mainline carrier to challenge Air Canada a bit more, and it does seem that they are doing an excellent job at that. I’m a bit puzzled at number 7, which was given to Air Transat. Air Transat (a small Canadian leisure carrier) operates age-old Airbus A310s on transatlantic routes, has recliner seats in their transatlantic business class product, and doesn’t even have that reasonable prices. I honestly don’t know what Skytrax (and the customers that ranked it well) were thinking when they ranked Air Transat that high and also as the world’s best leisure airline.

United Airlines was ranked number eight, which I think is just about right for them (and this is coming from a United fan). They have a generally good business class product on long-haul flights (considering you get their new seat), although their service is either a hit or a miss and they have quite a few mechanical delays. However, they also just introduced a new premium economy product, which surely helped their rankings. United was also given quite a few other awards, including the Best North American Business Class Seat (I’m flying the new Polaris seat for the first time today, but shouldn’t that be given to Delta, who has closed suites?), Best North American Business Class lounge (their Polaris lounges are excellent, with daybeds and sit down dining!), and the most improved airline of North America.

American Airlines was ranked as number nine below United. I agree with that as their new domestic cabins are awful (uncomfortable first class and economy class has almost no legroom) and they have a ton of mechanical delays. The only special award they were given was for having the best North American international first class, which makes sense, as they are the only airline in North America that has an international first class.

I don’t have much to say for numbers 10-13, although I am a bit surprised that Hawaiian Airlines isn’t ranked further up, especially with their flatbed seats on all of their A330s. Porter Airlines also might deserve a better ranking, given that all of their passengers departing from their hub at Toronto City Airport get access to a lounge (the whole airport is a lounge). However, they are really only a regional airline and only have Bombardier Q400s and were awarded the best Canadian regional airline. It’s also worth noting that neither Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air, Sun Country Airlines, nor any Mexican airlines were in the top 100 airlines.

Other Award Winners

I’ve talked about other award winners earlier in the North American section of this post. Listed below are some interesting awards that other airlines won and other notes that I have about the awards.

• Emirates was ranked as having the best in-flight entertainment out of every airline, which makes sense as ICE (their in-flight entertainment system) has some of the most extensive options.
• Philippine Airlines was ranked as being the most improved airline in the entire world. That makes sense as a couple of years ago, on their long-haul aircraft, they only had angle flat and recliner seats in business class. Now, on their A350s and some A330s, they have staggered seats in a 1-2-1 configuration (with the Thompson Vantage XL model), and have added flatbed seats to many of their A321neos.

• Singapore Airlines was ranked as having the world’s best cabin crew. Their flight attendants do generally have an amazing reputation, so this is no surprise. Garuda Indonesia and ANA were ranked as having the second and third best cabin crew.
• Singapore Airlines was ranked as having the best first class, which is no surprise given their new A380 first class product. However, Lufthansa was ranked as having the second-best first class product, which makes no sense given their mediocre seats and okay soft product. Air France, Etihad, and Emirates were ranked as having the third, fourth, and best first-class products.

• Rightfully so, Qatar Airways was ranked as the best business class airline. This is because of their amazing Qsuite seats on some of their A350s and 777s which have closed suites and the middle seats can also turn into a four-person suite. ANA, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and Qantas were ranked in the 2-5 slots for business class.
• Virgin Atlantic was ranked as the best premium economy airline, with Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines (I don’t see what’s so exceptional about it), and Air Canada ranked in spots 2-5.
• Japan Airlines was ranked as having the best economy class, which isn’t crazy, as they have had some creative seat designs on their newer planes in economy class. Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways, and ANA were granted spots 2-5 for best economy class.
• One thing that stuck out took out to me was that Etihad was ranked in place 29. Based on my experiences on Etihad in business class which was excellent, I didn’t expect their ranking to be so low. They have excellent seats, great lounges, and when I flew them, they had excellent service. They also have their amazing Residence product on their A380s which includes a bedroom, living room, and shower suite. However, they have done a great deal of cost-cutting since I flew them in 2016, so maybe that has had some effect on the very low ranking. Etihad was also stripped of their 5-star ranking by Skytrax this year, showing that Skytrax has lost their love towards them.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that I disagree with and there’s a lot that I agree with in Skytrax’s rankings. Again, the methodology is handled through millions of people casting votes to Skytrax. However, the awards were still highly subjective given that Skytrax still decided the final awards based off of consumer data. I’m not sure whether the best way to determine awards is through polls or simply a committee deciding on the best way. The way they did it (through a combination of both, although mostly through polls) in my opinion got a lot right this year with some of the best airlines, although under ranked some airlines (Etihad) and over ranked other airlines (Lufthansa). Again, Skytrax is the most well-known airline ranking site in the world (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it), and for the most part, I think they did a pretty good job with a lot of the awards this year.

What do you think of Skytrax’s 2019 World Airline Awards? Do you think any airline is under ranked or overrated in their awards?