SIA picked as the world’s best airline
Singapore Airlines has been picked as the world’s best airline by users of TripAdvisor, the travel review announced on Monday.
Singapore Airlines bested No. 2 Air New Zealand and No. 3 Emirates to take the top spot in the ratings, which are the second of TripAdvisor’s now-annual “Travelers’ Choice Awards.”
“The award is a validation of the hard work and dedication of our thousands of staff all around the world, who focus their attention every day on ensuring that Singapore Airlines remains competitive on a global level,” Singapore Airlines’ CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines placed No. 6 in the global rankings, making it the top North American carrier.
“It’s an honour to receive several TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards for airlines including being the only USbased carrier named a top ten airline in the world,” Ryan Green, Southwest Airlines’ chief marketing officer, said in a statement.
Rounding out TripAdvisor’s global top 10 were No. 4 Japan Airlines (JAL), No. 5 EVA Air, No. 7. Jet2.com, No. 8 Qatar Airways, No. 9 Azul and No. 10 Korean Air.
TripAdvisor joins what seems to be an ever-increasing number of groups with rankings that try to rate global or US carriers.
Among some of the more notable recent rankings: Skytrax named Qatar Airways as the best airline in its 2018 ratings while Conde Nast Traveler magazine picked Air New Zealand No. 1 last year.
Travel+Leisure magazine’s ratings are due out later this summer, when the magazine will reveal if Singapore Airlines has retained its title as the world’s top carrier in that list. Emirates was the runner-up in those ratings.
In May, Southwest and JetBlue each won their respective airline categories in the annual J.D. Power customer service satisfaction survey of North American carriers.
And last month, The Points Guy website become one of the latest to rank airlines on overall quality and service, tabbing Alaska Airlines as the best among US carriers.
For fliers looking to make sense of all them, there may be some consolation in that most of the rankings tend to favour the same set of airlines.
Singapore’s win in TripAdvisor’s 2018 ratings, for example, is little surprise for a carrier that’s routinely rated among the world’s best by most others.
In fact, most of TripAdvisor’s top 10 are regulars in the “world’s best” conversations — though the inclusion of the British budget airline Jet2.com will likely come as a surprise to some.
As for TripAdvisor, this year’s effort is the second for the company that rates airlines.
The company — known for its destination and travel reviews — described its methodology by saying: “Winners were based on airline reviews submitted on TripAdvisor flights or via one of TripAdvisor’s review collection partners from February 2017 to February 2018.”