The world’s best airlines for 2017

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.”

Winning the “Airline of the Year” award for the fourth time in a row, the Kiwi airline bested other carriers for its exemplary financial performance, 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.

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.

Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America won the award for Best Cabin Crew, while Qantas won Best Catering Award, as well as the Best Lounges category. Emirates was on the list of winners for having the Best In-flight Entertainment (so Emirates is only for entertainment, huh).

AirlineRatings.com‘s top 10 best airlines for 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

What is your personal favorite airline and why do you prefer to travel with them? Let’s know in the comments section.

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