And the Airline of the Year is…
This year, almost 19 million travellers from around the world voted for over 245 airlines in the Skytrax annual World Airline Awards poll and the results are in!
So, without further ado, may I have the envelope, please?
The winner of the top award for Airline of the Year in 2014 goes to… Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific!
This is Cathay’s fourth time winning the prestigious award and in their acceptance speech, they promised to not ‘rest on their laurels’ and ‘continue working to provide a superior travel experience’ and an even better overall product in the future.
Middle Eastern carrier Qatar Airways took second place with Asia’s Singapore Airlines taking bronze. Of note, no North American carriers cracked the top 10 and only two European airlines made the list, with Turkish Airlines finishing fifth and Germany’s Lufthansa rounding out the list at number ten. As has been the case in recent years, service oriented Middle Eastern and Asian carriers once again had a strong showing and last years’ winner, UAE’s Emirates finished fourth.
In other awards, our very own Air Canada proudly took the top spot for Best Airline in North America for the fifth consecutive year. Calgary based WestJet took silver as Canadian carriers finished first and second, outperforming all U.S. airlines. WestJet also made the cut in the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline category at number seven as well as finishing second in Best Airline Staff Service in North America.
In the Best Regional Airline category focusing on short-haul airlines, Canadian Porter Airlines finished with top marks beating out UK’s Virgin America and America’s jetBlue.
Canada’s vacation (charter) airlines also scored well in the Best Budget Airline group with Montreal’s Air Transat and Sunwing, coming in second and sixth respectively. Air Asia took the top spot.
Overall, it was quite a successful year for all Canadian airlines and Flight Centre would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Air Canada, WestJet, Porter Airlines, Air Transat and Sunwing on another year of a job well done.
Onwards and upwards!