The winners of the so-called "Oscars of Aviation" were just named, and the list is a bit different from the recently-announced "Golden Globes of Aviation," if you will.
We're talking about Skytrax World Airline Awards versus the annual Airline Excellence Awards, which are a pretty big deal as well. A couple of weeks ago, AirlineRatings.com released its latest ranking of the world's best airlines and named, in order, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways among the top three spots. AirlineRatings.com set pretty high standards to not only give out the awards, but also for airlines in order to qualify for said awards, including having a seven-star safety rating.
Skytrax has high standards too when it comes to its own version of the awards, but it has more to do with actual travelers' preferences. According to the platform, award-winning airlines are voted for by customers, who are able to make their own, personal choices as to which airline they consider the best, and any airline in the world can be nominated and considered. To gather this year's results and produce the ranking, the aviation consultancy conducted independent self-funded customer surveys between September 2022 and May 2023 across more than 325 airlines across the world.
This year, for the fifth time in the awards' history, Singapore Airlines was named best airline in the world by Skytrax. Second place went to Qatar Airways (which took first place in the Skytrax ranking last year and also snagged second spot in the Airline Excellence Awards), while the third spot went to ANA All Nippon Airways.
"Singapore Airlines achieved excellent results in many of the award categories, with the highlight being recognition of their First Class cabin as the World's Best First Class," Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, said in a statement.
Skytrax's World's Top Airlines of 2023 ranking, featuring just one US airline, below:
1. Singapore Airlines
2. Qatar Airways
3. ANA All Nippon Airways
4. Emirates
5. Japan Airlines
6. Turkish Airlines
7. Air France
8. Cathay Pacific
9. EVA Air
10. Korean Air
11. Hainan Airlines
12. Swiss Int'l Air Lines
13. Etihad Airways
14. Iberia
15. Fiji Airways
16. Vistara
17. Qantas Airways
18. British Airways
19. Air New Zealand
20. Delta Air Lines
