By Alan Granville
Qatar has retained the title of world's best airline in 2021.Credit: Fairfax Media
Qatar Airways has retained its crown as the world's best airline in the latest Skytrax World Airline Awards.
The new customer survey measures 23 months, from September 2019 to July 2021, during one of the most challenging times ever in the aviation industry.
Qantas remained in eighth place, with Virgin Australia ranked 34th and Jetstar in 56th place.
Qatar;s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner business class cabin.
Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said Qatar's achievement of winning the top award for the sixth time is "remarkable".
"Voted by customers, the focus of our annual survey is for travellers to make their own, personal choices as to which airline they consider to be best, and it is clear that Qatar Airways has maintained its high standards of innovation and service standards, both in more normal times and through the current global pandemic," said Plaisted.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker said the victory was down to the "incredible work" of its staff.
"We never abandoned our loyal customers when they needed us the most, we continued flying to get people home and implemented stringent biosafety measures to provide strong reassurance for travellers, all while continuing to innovate to ensure we remain the airline of choice for millions of passengers across the globe."
It was good news for the airline in an otherwise bad week, with Qatar Airways announcing on Monday it suffered a more than $US4 billion ($5.54 billion) loss in revenues over the last financial year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for long-haul travel.
The airline largely attributed the loss to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets.
In the last several months, the flagship carrier has received a boost from an end to a years-long boycott that locked Qatar Airways out of the airspace of Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The embargo had forced the airline to take longer routes and consume more jet fuel, raising expenses. For the first time since 2017, the energy-rich state's airline reopened key routes to hubs like Dubai, Cairo and Riyadh as the political dispute eased in January.
The long-haul carrier praised its resilience in the face of the fast-spreading virus variants still racing around the globe, noting that its operational loss of $288 million stood at 7% less than the year before.
"Whilst our competitors grounded their aircraft and closed their routes, we adapted our entire commercial operation to respond to ever-evolving travel restrictions and never stopped flying," Mr al-Baker said.
The airline acknowledged receiving a $3 billion lifeline from the Qatari government to keep operating as it struggled with virus restrictions. The carrier took just 5.8 million passengers to the skies in the last fiscal year, compared to 32.3 million the year before — a staggering 82 per cent drop.
Qatar Airways mentioned some scant signs of recovery, as vaccinations against the coronavirus accelerate across the world. From a low of 33 destinations in the peak of the pandemic, the airline now flies to over 140 and has expanded to new markets including into Brisbane.
In second place in this year's Skytrax awards was Singapore Airlines, which also claimed the best cabin crew and best first class crowns, while ANA All Nippon Airways finished in third and also won the cleanest airline. Japan Airlines vaulted into fifth from 11th place while Air France was also a big winner, jumping from 23 to 10. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabian Airlines was named the World's Most Improved Airline.
Qatar Airways was also named world's best airline by AirlineRatings.com in July, which credited the airline for continuing to fly many routes, including to Australia, while many other airlines grounded their fleets.
Skytrax World Airlines Awards 2021 (2019 placing in brackets)
- Qatar Airways (1)
- Singapore Airlines (2)
- ANA All Nippon Airways (3)
- Emirates (5)
- Japan Airlines (11)
- Cathay Pacific Airways (4)
- EVA Air (6)
- Qantas Airways (8)
- Hainan Airlines (7)
- Air France (23)
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