Qatar won World’s Top airline for the 7th year in a row, followed by Singapore Airlines, and Emirates.
Those travelling in Australia, will be happy to know that Qantas arguably made the biggest jump in rank from 8th to 5th. America’s Delta also moved from 30th to 24th place, and British Airways remained a consistent 11th place.
Air New Zealand however fell 10 places landing in the 30th position, while Air Canada fell from 33rd to 50th.
These dramatic shifts in rank come with the public asking the question: how are airlines awarded with such prestige despite the controversy surrounding them and why are good airlines getting left behind?
Qatar has been number one for the past 7 years despite constantly being in the news for some highly controversial accusations. The most notable scandal during the year 2020, was that of an unauthorised and illegal strip search of up to 18 female passengers.
Although legal action has been taken, the matter is being swept under the rug by SkyTrax despite the case still being news in 2022.
When asked why they decided to choose an airline that breached the human rights of multiple women, they replied with a perfectly PR-produced statement.
“This is the customer’s choice and this is the process that has been used for the World Airport Awards since their inception.”
The controversy surrounding the validity of these awards continues with Qantas. Qantas has been performing at its worst recently and yet they’re within the top 5 of the world’s best airlines.
The airline reported just 48% of Qantas Sydney departures left on time during April of this year. Wait times for customers calling the airline for support were through the roof, with one customer being on hold for eight hours. The outsourcing of 2,000 ground staff has been ruled by Fair Work as an illegal breach.
Most recently, Qantas has had to apologise and rearrange its policies after not having vegetarian meals available on some domestic flights.
Other airlines such as Air New Zealand are reaching feats higher than was once thought imaginable, with a new non-stop flight from New Zealand to New York, the introduction of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and barely any customer complaints, it’s surprising that this airline ranked so low.
SkyTrax claims that these results are “voted for by customers” with over 13.42 million survey entries and yet, the news, social medi,a and customers themselves contradict the results greatly.
Perhaps the ‘Oscars of the Sky’ organisers should expand their search and take into account the opinions of those who aren’t volunteering to take the survey in the hopes for a broader, more accurate result.
