With the emergency and effects of the novel Covid-19, air travel hasn’t been the same for the past year and continues to stumble upon the disease’s after effects.
The aviation sector saw many travellers cancel flights while others opted not to travel and also countries lockdown thus little or no travel. This forced many airlines to ground aircraft for significant chunks of 2020.
Never the less, as the world moves forward to new air travel experiences, AirlineRatings.com has released its annual round-up of the world’s best carriers, ready to help fliers decide which airline to choose for their return to the skies.
The Australia-based aviation safety and product rating agency compiles its Airline Excellence Awards based on criteria including age of fleet, passenger reviews and product offerings. This year, the team of global editors threw airlines’ Covid-19 responses into the mix too. And as for 2021, there’s a new entry at number one: Qatar Airways jumped up the rankings to nab the top spot, beating out previous winner Air New Zealand which has topped the list six times over the past several years and this year came in at number two.
While addressing the press, Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com said it was Qatar Airways’ response to the pandemic that sealed the deal.
“Qatar Airways has always figured highly in our rankings, winning various awards such as Best Business Class but it was the airline’s commitment to keeping its route network largely open that attracted the judges’ praise and votes,” says Thomas.
Thomas also points to the airline’s repatriation flights, and its commitment to making the pandemic flying experience as safe as possible.
AirlineRatings.com usually announces its top airlines in November, in anticipation of the year ahead. The pandemic forced the aviation safety and product rating agency to switch things up.
“We pushed the 2021 announcement into the 2021 year due to the chaos of Covid and we wanted to see how the industry would handle the pandemic over a longer period of time before making selections,” explains Thomas. Usually, profitability is one of the key factors assessed by judges as they rank the top airlines, but because of the steep financial impact of Covid-19 on the aviation industry, finances weren’t taken into consideration this year.
“We had to drop that this year because virtually all airlines are losing money,” says Thomas.
AirlineRatings.com’s top 20 airlines for 2021
1. Qatar Airways
2. Air New Zealand
3. Singapore Airlines
4. Qantas
5. Emirates
6. Cathay Pacific
7. Virgin Atlantic
8. United Airlines
9. EVA Air
10. British Airways
11. Lufthansa
12. ANA
13. Finnair
14. Japan Air Lines
15. KLM
16. Hawaiian Airlines
17. Alaska Airlines
18. Virgin Australia
19. Delta Air Lines
20. Etihad Airways
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