Two ‘airline Oscars’ for Air NZ

Air New Zealand has won international awards for its environmental initiatives and its SkyCouch seats in what it describes as an unprecedented double at the “Oscars of the airline industry”.

In the Air Transport World Airline Industry Awards it was crowned Eco Airline of the Year and won the Passenger Experience Achievement award for recent upgrades to its economy SkyCouch seats.

The Eco Airline of the Year award recognises Air New Zealand’s portfolio of sustainability work.

During the past 12 months it has saved 7300 tonnes of carbon by using electricity to power aircraft while at the gate and 8700 tonnes of carbon has been offset from Air New Zealand employee business travel.

Close to 27,000 tonnes of carbon was voluntarily offset by customers in

2018 through the airline’s FlyNeutral programme.

The passenger experience award recognised the airline’s SkyCouch, a row of economy seats that can be turned into a couch after takeoff on international wide-body planes. Passengers must pay for all three seats in the row.

Dubbed “cuddle class”, the convertible seats were introduced in

2011.

Changes last year include a dedicated infant harness enabling infants to stay lying down throughout the cruise phase of flight and a new infant pod which provides extra comfort and protection.

ATW editor-in-chief Karen Walker said Air New Zealand was a “remarkable, innovative and pioneering company”.

The magazine has been published monthly for the past 50 years.

Among other awards, United States ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines was named Value Airline of the Year and Dallas Fort Worth was named Airport of the Year.

Airline Market Leader went to airBaltic, a Latvian carrier which also won the award last year.

The award for Aviation Technology Achievement went to the Airbus A220, previously known as the Bombardier CSeries.

The 45th ATW Awards will be presented on March 26 in New York.