The British consumer group, Which? has released the results of its annual global airline survey with the three leading Gulf carriers featuring in the top 6.
In September Which? sampled over 7,500 of their members. The responses covered 11,359 flights, across 35 major airlines and scored airlines in categories that are considered most important for passenger comfort.
The Best and Worst Airlines 2016 survey ranks airlines across seven areas including cabin environment, customer service, food & drink, Inflight entertainment and seat comfort.
The airlines were also scored on value for money and the overall customer score – A measure of how likely passengers are to fly with the airline again recommend them to friends and family.
Well deserved recognition for the investment made by Gulf airlines
Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways all scored strongly with Emirates performing the most strongly amongst the ME3. Qatar Airways followed close behind with Etihad coming in at 6th place.
However, it was Singapore Airlines that secured the top spot having been awarded 5 stars out of 5 in all but one of the seven scoring categories. And a score of 4 out of 5 stars in the ‘cabin environment’ category didn’t stop Singapore Airlines from receiving a huge 91% customer score.
Heres the Top Ten long-haul airlines according to Which? (Customer score in brackets)
1. Singapore Airlines (91%)
2. Emirates (82%)
3. KLM (78%)
4. Qatar Airways (77%)
5. Virgin Atlantic (73%)
6. Etihad (68%)
7. Delta Airlines (66%)
8. Mayalasia Airlines (62%)
9. Thomson Airways (61%)
10. British Airways (60%)
Improvements ahead for Etihad
The result for Etihad will disappoint staff who have seen a transformation at the world’s fastest growing airline, dubbed flying reimagined.
Although Etihad has recently been awarded the coveted Skytrax Five Star classification, some of its massive investment has still to bear fruit.
The airline’s rapid expansion has led to a wide variation in onboard product, with some jets and crew previously wet-leased from partner airline Jet Airways.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Etihad fair a lot better in next year’s ratings as the product and service across its fleet becomes more consistent.
