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The 'Airline of the Year' for 2018 has been revealed, who decided this?

Air New Zealand may struggle to work its way up the list of Best Airlines in the World, but it continues to own the throne as Airline of the Year through AirlineRatings.com.

Air New Zealand may struggle to work its way up the list of Best Airlines in the World, but it continues to own the throne as Airline of the Year through AirlineRatings.com.

Overnight, the safety and product rating website confirmed the Kiwi carrier as Airline of the Year in 2018, making it the fifth time Air New Zealand landed the top spot.

Despite the tone of the title (some might say it’s click bait, we say it’s a friendly lure to information that’ll help you decide travel plans), we don’t actually have anything against Air New Zealand receiving the title, we just think it’s important for Agents and travellers to understand where and how the ratings are determined.

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On that note, Air New Zealand was selected as Airline of the Year, ahead of Australia’s Qantas (second place), by six editors with over 180 years combined industry experience. The panel reviews safety and government audits, looked at fleet age, passenger reviews, profitability, investment, product offerings and staff relations.

This led them to select Air New Zealand as number one (again) as it has a number of award-winning inflight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and a great employee environment.

“In our objective analysis Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance.”

Geoffrey Thomas, AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief

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Right behind Air New Zealand in this year’s list was Australia’s very own Qantas, which was named Best for Domestic Airline Services, Best Catering and Best Lounges.

Following Qantas was Singapore Airlines (also won Best First Class and Best Cabin Crew), Virgin Australia (also won Best Business Class), Virgin Atlantic and Etihad Airways.

Rounding up the list of top 10 is All Nippon Airways, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.

EMIRATES

Other winners in this year’s awards were Emirates, who won Best In-Flight Entertainment, along with Aegean Airlines named Best Regional Airlines and Tianjin Airlines Most Improved Airline.

Congratulations Air New Zealand for maintaining the title Airline of the Year.

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READ: Flight Centre downs Air New Zealand in grudge rugby re-match

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