Qatar Airways was named the Best Airline Middle East at the 2011 World Airline Awards, in a ceremony held in the French Air and Space Museum at the Paris Air Show.

The runners-up in this category are Etihad Airways taking 2nd place in the category, ahead of Emirates in 3rd position.

Best Airline Middle East 1 Qatar Airways 2 Etihad Airways 3 Emirates Voted by over 18.8 million airline passengers from 100 different nationalities, the World Airline Awards™ are the most prestigious quality recognition of front-line product and service standards for the world airline industry. With 200 airlines featured, the awards measure customer satisfaction levels across 38 different items of airline front-line product and service.

Mr Albar Al Baker, CEO, QATAR AIRWAYS "Today, I am immensely proud of Qatar Airways and it is an honour on behalf of my workforce and my country to collect this prestigious award and for Qatar Airways to be named Airline of the Year. Since I became the Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Airways in 1997 at the time of Qatar Airways’ relaunch, my goal was simple – for Qatar Airways to reach the pinnacle of the airline industry,” he said. At Qatar Airways we always aim at doing the best in everything we do. To be considered as the top airline in the world is a huge achievement and a very rewarding moment in Qatar Airways’ history. It is extremely gratifying to be recognised as “Airline of the Year”, which takes into account the outstanding efforts and hard work of all our employees, as we continuously aim to exceed the expectations of our customers. I also want to thank our customers for their positive response, loyalty and appreciation of our product. It is a great motivation for everyone at Qatar Airways and will stimulate the entire airline’s staff to continuously deliver Five Star excellence and the highest service standards we are renowned for worldwide."

	Mr Edward Plaisted - CEO, SKYTRAX
"It is very special to see Qatar Airways being named as Worlds Best Airline in the awards, and represents the culmination of a steady progress towards this top position by Qatar Airways in recent years. From 8th place six years ago, they have moved up the global ranking, and now occupy this top position as world's best airline. The award reflects opinions of passengers around the world, and is based on every customer type across all cabins - be they business or leisure, frequent or first-time flyers."