AirlineRatings.com, the world’s only safety and product rating website has announced Qatar Airways as its Airline of the Year for 2024.

Qatar Airways nudged out previous winners Air New Zealand as well as Korean Air, Cathay Pacific Airways and Emirates for the top spot.

The AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards, judged by five editors with over 100 years of industry experience, combines major safety and government audits, with 12 key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger reviews, profitability, safety rating, product rating, innovation and forward fleet orders.

AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said: “In our objective analysis Qatar Airways came out number one in many key areas although it was a very close scoring for the top ten.”

“The passenger reviews however scored Qatar Airways ahead of all airlines and its consistency and high standard of service delivery came through in the feedback,” said Mr Thomas.

The Top 25 premium airlines are Qatar Airways, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific Airways, Air New Zealand, Emirates, Air France/ KLM, All Nippon Airways, Etihad Airways, Qantas, Virgin Australia/Atlantic, Vietnam Airlines, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, TAP Portugal, JAL, Finnair, Hawaiian, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa / Swiss, Turkish Airlines, IGA Group (British Airways & Iberia) Air Canada, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines.

Qatar Airways picked up Best Business Class for the fifth year running and Best Catering and Air New Zealand won Best Economy Class.

Singapore Airlines won Best First Class, while Virgin Australia won Best Cabin Crew. Best-In-Flight Entertainment and Best Premium Economy went to Emirates, while Qantas picked up Best Lounges. Etihad Airways picked up Best Environmental Airline for the third year running.

Excellence in Long Haul travel: Middle East - Qatar Airways, North Asia – Korean Air, Europe – Air France, North America – Air Canada, South America – Latam, Southern Europe – Turkish Airlines, South-East Asia– Cathay Pacific Airways and Australia/Pacific – Air New Zealand.  

Best Regional Airline was Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA).

AirlineRatings.com's Best Low-Cost Airlines are; Americas – Southwest, Middle East – Fly Dubai, Asia – AirAsia Group, Australia/Pacific – Jetstar Group and Europe – easyJet.   

Vietjet picked up two awards; Best Ultra Low-Cost Airline and Best Low-Cost Airline Onboard Hospitality which recognize the amazing value of its onboard offering.

AirlineRatings also announced its Top 25 Best Low-Cost Airlines which are in alphabetical order: AirAsia Group, Air Baltic, Air Canada Rouge, Cebu Pacific, easyjet, Eurowings, FlyDubai, FlyNAS, GOL, Jetblue, Jet2, Jetstar Group, Jeju air, Norwegian, Peach, Ryanair, Scoot, Spicejet, Suncountry, Southwest, Transavia, Vietjet, Volotea, Vueling, WizzAir.

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Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world with a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world.

Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations as well as the airline’s own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate.