Five Asia-Pacific airlines among world’s 10 best in TripAdvisor rankings
Top 10 airlines list, based on passenger opinions posted to the travel review website, features many carriers regularly rated highly; only one is North American, and only European one to rank is a British budget airline
Five of the world’s 10 best airlines according to TripAdvisor users are based in Asia-Pacific, including top-ranked Singapore Airlines and No. 2 Air New Zealand.
Gulf-based Emirates took third spot in the ratings, the second edition of TripAdvisor’s “Travellers’ 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.
Southwest Airlines placed No. 6 in the global rankings, making it the top North American carrier.
“It’s an honour to receive several TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards for airlines including being the only US-based carrier named a top 10 airline in the world,” Ryan Green, Southwest Airlines’ chief marketing officer, said.
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.
Asia Airlines, Thai Smile and Garuda Indonesia have dropped out of the top 10, having made the inaugural list last year.
TripAdvisor said: “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.”
With the ratings, TripAdvisor has joined an ever-increasing number of groups that rate the world’s airlines. Recently Skytrax named Qatar Airways the best airline in its 2018 ratings, while Conde Nast Traveler magazine picked Air New Zealand as its No. 1 last year.
Travel + Leisure magazine’s ratings are due out later this summer, when the magazine will reveal whether Singapore Airlines has retained its title as the world’s top carrier in that list. Emirates was the runner-up in those ratings.
For fliers looking to make sense of the numerous annual reports that rank global carriers, 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 is 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 is likely to come as a surprise to some.
