Singapore Airlines is the passengers' choice for 2007, after winning Airline of the Year title in the World Airline Awards

		Singapore Airlines takes top honour in the World Airline Awards, with Thai Airways in 2nd place, and Cathay Pacific 3rd
	"Global survey ..... multi-national interviews ..... Global awards"

Commenting on the World Airline Awards, Edward Plaisted (CEO of Skytrax) said ....

"We would use this opportunity to thank media sources around the world who continue to express such enormous interest and support in the survey results. As an organisation, we have striven hard to ensure we deliver not only the world's best airline survey, but the most credible and accurate. Doing this without sponsorship or advertising is not easy, but we now deliver an unmatched formula and level of expertise in this field.

This is the second time in the history of the World Airline Awards that Singapore Airlines has emerged as overall winner, and we congratulate them on this outstanding achievement. In a survey of this scale and duration, our data section have seen the top 5 positions fluctuate on quite a regular basis, and we would highlight the performance of these other airlines - Thai Airways (up from 4th in 2006), Cathay Pacific (a former winner, 3rd), Qatar Airways in 4th (a new entrant to the Top 5 group), and Qantas in 5th position.

All the Awards announced today represent a level of excellence achievement by the winning airlines. We all like to be recognised for success we have achieved, and whilst we honour the successful airlines here, I also pay due respect to the significant achievements by many airline that may have missed out on a top place by just a very small margin.

As well as picking the overall Airline of the Year title, Singapore Airlines was named Best Business Class in a very competitive section of the survey. Surely in part recognising Singapore Airlines new Business Class product, we will await next year to see what customers think about the yet to be unveiled product standards on their Airbus A380 aircraft.

"Thai Airways achieved an impressive performance, taking 2nd place overall in the Survey, as well as walking off with the Best First Class Lounge Award, and 3rd position in the Cabin Staff section.

A former Airline of the Year winner, Cathay Pacific (3rd), was a very consistent performer across the World Airline Survey, and whilst not taking a top spot in 2007, was ranked in the top 4 or 5 positions in nearly every section of study. I am sure we will see them on the top of the podium again very soon.

Qatar Airways is a new entrant to the top 5 of our blue riband Airline of the Year title, taking 4th place overall - and again, performing well in many other categories. Named Best First Class airline, Qatar Airways also picked up the Best Cabin Staff (Middle East) Award.

In this top category, Qantas ranked 5th overall, again with a number of category placings in the top 5. Down from second in the 2006 Awards, Qantas is however the highest placed airline in the Australasia region, and a very consistent performer across many product and service sections.

It is appropriate to mention that Jetstar Airways (a subsidiary of Qantas) is named the World's Best Low-Cost Airline for 2007 - wrenching the title away from Europe's Best Low-Cost Airline, Air Berlin, who were the global winners in 2006.

Sixth place goes to Malaysia Airlines, moving up from three their 2006 result, but they should be delighted to learn that they are back to winning ways in 2007, taking the world's Best Cabin Staff Award. It is a title that Malaysia Airlines picked up in a number of previous years, losing their crown to Thai Airways last year.

The cabin staff Awards were as keenly contested this year as on any previous occasion, and I understand that for the last 4 weeks of the Cabin Staff survey, our data section watched the winning position swap around between the final Top 3 airlines several times. I am sure this will remain a keenly fought Award category, reflecting as it does the level of service hospitality.

I would like to pay particular thanks at this time to all of our Survey participants, without whom none of this would be possible. We have received a lot of positive feedback during the course of the studies, and try where possible to take onboard suggestions on how we can improve areas for future year surveys."

Any further enquiries should be directed to:

Mr Peter Miller
Marketing Director
SKYTRAX RESEARCH
E-mail: miller@airlinequality.com