Air Astana – best airline in Central Asia and India
Referred to as the “Oscars of the aviation industry”, the Skytrax World Airline Awards are coveted Quality accolades. Customers make their own choices as to which airlines they consider to be the best, underlining the brand as the Passenger’s Choice Awards. This year, in London, Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, has been recognized for 4 Star service excellence, retaining the accolade of “Best Airline in Central Asia and India” for the seventh consecutive year. Read more in the piece of the “Strategy2050.kz” Information Agency.
The Skytrax World Airline Awards are recognized throughout the world as a valued benchmarking tool that is independent, impartial and global. The survey measures passenger satisfaction among business and leisure travelers, across all cabins (First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class and Economy class).
This year in a gala ceremony at the Langham Hotel in London, the prestigious awards ceremony has brought together representatives of the world's leading airlines.
Over 19 million air travelers were surveyed about their experiences with airlines on the ground and in the air over a 10-month period. The survey measured passenger satisfaction across a wide range of performance indicators of airline front-line product and service, including check-in, boarding, on-board seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, food, beverages, in-flight entertainment and staff service. The survey covered over 200 airlines, from the largest international airlines to smaller domestic carriers.
Following the results of the survey, Singapore Airlines was named the World’s Best Airline at 2018 World Airline Awards. Singapore Airlines enjoyed further success by winning major awards for the World’s Best First Class and the Best First Class Seat. The second placement was taken by Qatar Airways, which was the winner of 2017 World Airline Awards. The third place went to ANA All Nippon Airways, the fourth to Emirates, the fifth to Taiwan's EVA Air, and the sixth to Cathay Pacific. Lufthansa was the only European carrier to make the top 10, in seventh place. It was followed by China's Hainan Airlines in eighth, Garuda Indonesia in ninth and Thai Airways in 10th.
“We congratulate Singapore Airlines on this fabulous achievement, being voted the World’s Best Airline by customers for a fourth time in the awards history. A key ‘wow’ factor for customers is consistency and this proved to a real asset for Singapore Airlines who scored highly across both product and service. I am sure Singapore Airlines will also take great pride in winning the World’s Best First Class award, less than one year after they introduced their new first-class suites”, Edward Plaisted, the CEO of Skytrax commented.
Other notable accolades include China Southern Airlines winning the World’s Most Improved Airline, continued success for Garuda Indonesia being named the World’s Best Cabin Crew, and Qatar Airways as the World’s Best Business Class. Thai Airway was awarded with the World’s Best Economy Class.
Air Astana is the nation’s largest airline won the Best Airline in Central Asia and India award. The airline is celebrating the award for the sixth successive year.
“We are of course delighted and honored to be recognized once again. This award is particularly important and valued as it has been won based on the personal choice of our customers. I would like to offer them my sincerest thanks and look forward to welcoming them on board again soon. I would also like to recognize our team of dedicated employees who go the extra mile each and every day to provide consistently outstanding service to all our passengers. We will continue to work hard and strive for even higher standards”, Peter Foster, the President and CEO of Air Astana said.
It should be noted that Air Astana plans to go public this year, which will contribute to the development of the internal equity market of the country.
Air Astana flies to more than 60 international and domestic destinations. The carrier has a fleet of 31 aircraft, including Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 757-200, Airbus A320, Airbus А320neo and Embraer E190, a number it plans to increase to 64 by 2026.
“We have strong support from stakeholders, shareholders and government at a very high level. So, we are not doing this alone”, Mr. Foster said.
For reference: Celebrating their 18th anniversary, the World Airline Awards are independent and impartial, introduced in 1999 to provide a customer satisfaction study that was truly global. Travelers across the world vote in the largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to decide the award winners. Skytrax pay all costs of the Survey and Awards event. Airlines do not pay any survey entry or registration fee, and the awards event is free to attend. There are no charges for airline use of the award logos and results. Over 100 customer nationalities participated in the survey with 20.36 million eligible entries counted in the results. All survey entries were screened to identify IP and user information, with duplicate, suspect or ineligible entries deleted. 335 airlines are featured in the survey results. The online survey operated from August 2017 to May 2018, together with invitations sent to previous year respondents in the survey database (total 24.45 million customers). Customer survey forms were offered in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. The highest nationality increase in the 2018 survey was Chinese customers with an additional 3.5 million entries.
Saltanat Suraganova
