While divergent passenger preferences and categories used by different rankings make the task of definitively declaring one airline "the best" a fool's errand, the Airline Excellence Awards given out annually by AirlineRankings.com has significant authority alongside SkyTrax's World Airline Award.
Last year, Air New Zealand (ANZFF) clinched the Airline Excellence Award title of the world's best airline due to both consistent quality and a number of sleek features that it was working to launch (including beds that travelers in economy can book for several hours on long-haul flights for a better sleep.)
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In 2024, that title was awarded to Qatar Airways. Known for its luxury level of service, the airline also took the spot in 2021 and 2022 before being pushed out by Air New Zealand last year. The latter dropped to the fourth spot as the second and third were awarded to Korean Air and Cathay Pacific Airways (CPCAF) , respectively.
These airlines pushed out Air New Zealand for the top spot
"Qatar Airways came out number one in many key areas although it was a very close scoring for the top 10," AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said in a statement on the results. "The passenger reviews however scored Qatar Airways ahead of all airlines and its consistency and high standard of service delivery came through in the feedback."
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But while Asian and Middle Eastern airlines dominated the list, the U.S. did not see any of its airlines land in the top 10. The only two American airlines to land in the top 20 were Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines (ALK) which took a respective seventeenth and eighteenth spots.
The categories by which AirlineRatings editors put together their ranking include everything from passenger reviews and safety ratings to profitability and how well the airline updates the planes in its fleet by getting rid of old ones and ordering new ones.
This airline is the world's best for economy travelers
Many of the same top contenders showed up in individual subcategories for different fare classes — Singapore Airlines (SINGF) took the top spot for the best first class service while Qatar Airways also scored Best Business Class. Dubai-based Emirates has the best premium economy experience while Air New Zealand has the best economy class (can anyone really beat lie-flat beds in economy?)
Regionally, Korean Air took the top spot in North Asia, Cathay Pacific Airways won out in Southeast Asia while Air New Zealand took the top spot in Australia-Pacific. Air France-KLM (AFRAF) , which scored fifth globally, was the winning airline for Europe while Air Canada (ACDVF) took the top spot for North America.
Low-cost airlines were not ranked individually but 25 airlines were recognized as being in the top globally. North American ones include Air Canada's offshoot Rouge, JetBlue Airways (JBLU) and Southwest Airlines (LUV) . Globally, Singapore Airlines' Scoot, Norwegian, Lufthansa (DLAKF) 's Eurowings, EasyJet (EJTTF) , Cebu Pacific, Vietjet, Wizz Air (WZZAF) and Ryanair (RYAOF) all landed in the list.
This was the category in which U.S.-based airlines had the best showing as very few made top spots in higher fare and airline classes.
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