Air New Zealand, BA, Singapore, Etihad, Qantas, Others Bag Best Airlines for Year 2017

Posted on by Wole Shadare

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AirlineRatings.com has named its best airlines of 2017, with Air New Zealand, Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Etihad all placing high on the leaderboard.
Also among the best rated carriers are British Airways, Lufthansa, Air Nippon, Lufthansa, Eva, Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Australia.  
This was the outcome of rating conducted by AirlineRatings.com, the world’s foremost safety and product rating website.
Air New Zealand came first as its 2017 Airline of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. World’s Top Ten Airlines for 2017 AirlineRatings.com celebrates and promotes excellence in the airline industry and the pinnacle of these efforts is its Airline Excellence Awards.
 Winners include: Etihad Airways, Virgin Australia, Emirates, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Norwegian, Flybe, Garuda Indonesia, Scoot, Kulula.com, Virgin America and Delta Air Lines.   Airline of the Year Air New Zealand is being honoured for the fourth consecutive year for its record-breaking financial performance, award-winning in-flight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and motivation of its staff.
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These factors have stamped the airline as an industry trendsetter. The AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards program combines four major international industry and government audits, with another nine key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger review ratings, profitability, investment rating and key product offerings. 
AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said: “In our objective analysis Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance.”
The editorial team, one of the worlds’s most awarded and experienced, lauded Air New Zealand’s commitment to a young fleet and its continual focus on the environment.  
The airline also won Best Premium Economy Class for the third time. Air New Zealand has been a leader in the airline industry for years and has won countless awards including Air Transport World’s Airline of the Year in 2010 and 2012. 
“Quite simply Air New Zealand is an airline of first choice. And given the airline’s location and the country’s size, its performance is even more remarkable,” said Mr Thomas. “This outstanding performance has seen Air New Zealand catapult to the top tier of the industry in a host of areas.”
Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon says being recognised once again by the industry is a real highlight for its people in a record year of performance.
  “The past 12 months have been exceptional for Air New Zealand – we’ve continued to invest in a streamlined and refurbished fleet, launched three new international routes and rolled out improvements to the customer experience with enhanced inflight entertainment and a multi-million dollar lounge redevelopment programme.  
 “Above all, the award is testament to the talented team of people who make Air New Zealand great by putting customers at the heart of everything we do.” Read more about Air New Zealand’s offerings here Best First Class This award has been won by Etihad Airways for the third year running because its First Class still leads the industry. “Etihad’s commitment to excellence appears to know no bounds. The airline’s new First Class and Business Class offerings are quite stunning and have set the bar even higher in luxury travel,” said Mr Thomas. “In what is an incredible achievement in just over 13 years Etihad Airways has stamped itself not only as a major force in the airline industry but a trendsetter.” Take a video stroll through Etihad’s exclusive First Class cabin. Best Business Class This year Virgin Australia has taken out this much sought after award with its “The Business” suite which is more First Class than Business Class. The major plus for this product is the bed with its triple-layer seat cushion supported by a hammock sub-frame which guarantees a really good sleep. There is also ample space for gadgets and shelf space to place one’s laptop while having dinner. Read more about Virgin Australia’s business class here; Best Premium Economy Air New Zealand has won Best Premium Economy once again for its lead in this class.
The airline is continually innovating in all cabins and this has resulted in higher yields as passengers upgrade their travel experience. “Air New Zealand has shown better than any other airline that passengers will pay more if the product is right and priced accordingly. Its efforts in this space are a lesson to all airlines that passengers want better and are prepared to pay.” Best Economy Singapore Airlines picks up Best Economy Class.  The airline has always been a leader in the economy class product going back to the 1960s when as Malaysia-Singapore Airlines it introduced free headsets and free drinks to economy passengers.
Wole Shadare