WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS : SURVEY METHODOLOGY

	WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS™
"the world's most respected Independent airline passenger survey"

Operating since 1999, the World Airline Survey is held in high esteem for both the clarity of process, and rigorously applied rules of complete independence. Worldwide survey interviews totalled 16,241,085  - with more than 97 different passenger nationalities participating.

No outside sponsorship or external influence is applied to any aspect of the Survey .... resulting in it being the most respected passenger survey of it's type in the world.

The survey was operated over an 8 month period (August 2008 to March 2009), during which time air travellers completed a wide range of survey nominations - for the Airline of the Year title, together with regional and other award categories.

The Survey data is collated from a variety of input sources, including:

  Passenger Interviews completed online & via e-mail

  Business Research Group / Travel Panel Interviews

  Corporate Travel Questionnaire / Interviews

  Telephone Interviews

  Selective Passenger Interviews


Product and Service factors ranked by customers in the survey included :

GROUND / AIRPORT

Standard of Airline web site

Online Booking service 

Online check-in services 

Airport Ticket Counters

Waiting times at Check-in 
Quality of Check-in service
Self Check-in options
Boarding Procedures
Friendliness of Ground staff 
Efficiency of Ground Staff
Transfer services
Arrival services
Baggage Delivery 
Handling Delays

ONBOARD : PRODUCT

Cabin Seat comfort
Cabin Cleanliness
Toilet Cleanliness
Cabin Lighting / Ambience
Cabin Temperatures
Cabin Comfort amenities
Reading Materials
Airline magazine
Inflight Entertainment standards
Audio / Movie programming 
AVOD options
Quality of Meals
Quantity of Food served
Meal Choices
Selection of Drinks / Pay bar formats

ONBOARD : STAFF SERVICE

Assistance thru Boarding
Friendliness of Staff
Service Attentiveness / Efficiency
Consistency of Service across different flights
Staff Language skills
Meal service efficiency
Availability thru Flight / Cabin presence
PA announcements
Problem solving Skills
General Staff Attitudes 
Staff Grooming

Additional research included detailed back-up interviews amongst a representative sample of Survey respondents. This research was to investigate respondent reasons for Best Airline nominations, and prime satisfaction drivers when using an airline.

Data weighting was applied to provide nomination equity when evaluating airlines of different size. Data weighting used passenger numbers for airlines featured in the Survey.

ONLINE VOTING & DISQUALIFICATION

For the 2009 World Airline Awards, a major Asian airline was disqualified from ALL of the Award categories. This action was taken by Skytrax in March 2009, after 3 earlier written warnings were issued to the airline and subsequently ignored. It was found that the airline was actively instructing its own employees around the world to complete the Survey categories in a manner that wholly undermined the ethos and honesty of the survey, which represents the "traveller's" choice (not an airline's own staff!).

"This is the first time we have had to disqualify such a major airline" said Edward Plaisted of Skytrax. "However regrettable it is to take such action, we have no hesitation in protecting the integrity and value of the Survey and resulting World Airline Awards. In the academic world their action would quickly be described as cheating, and in our book this was the same. We will not allow Skytrax standards to fall the levels of those organisations that sell Awards to airlines, and I guess this is an intent that is not shared by all airlines!".

All online Survey interviews are screened to identify and monitor ISP / user information and delete all duplicate / multiple entries.  The Skytrax poll-breaker program applies pattern-checking to all survey interviews. This identifies all nominations that follow similar rating patterns, or duplicating earlier entries - especially important to ensure that virtual private network users cannot submit multiple or misleading entries.  The net result of the Skytrax  "poll-breaker" program was that some 3.35 per cent of total responses were ruled ineligible in this 2008/9 World Airline Survey, to ensure maximum accuracy of final results.

No financial payment was made to any survey interviewees, and the cost of the Survey is funded by Skytrax, with no third party financial sponsorship or support. 

SURVEY INCENTIVE

A survey "prize incentive" was offered to respondents participating in this 2008 World Airline Survey. The survey prize is to be awarded following an electronic draw in April 2009. The prize is supplied by Skytrax, and no financial assistance or sponsorship is supplied by any airport or third party.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Skytrax are unable to provide more information to general enquiries, other than that supplied in these Survey pages.

Airline of the Year Reports are available for purchase - containing Survey methodology - Airline nominations - Airline ratings - consumer voting patterns and supportive data.

  Survey Report