Philippine Carriers Fail to Impress at World Airline Awards

Long considered the "Oscars of the aviation industry," the World Airline Awards highlight the best airlines across a number of categories representing the global benchmark in airline excellence. Dubai-based Emirates clinched the top spot as the World's Best Airline for 2016, while Philippine Airlines finished in 83rd place.

air asia best low cost airline
Image Source: Skytrax
Although Philippine Airlines improved its ranking from the 2015 World Airline Awards where it finished in 87th place, Philippine carriers failed to impress in any of the categories at the 2016 ceremony. 

At the 2016 World Airline Awards, two Gulf carriers claimed the top two places, while Singapore Airlines finished in third place.

The World's Top Ten Airlines in 2016
  1. Emirates 
  2. Qatar Airways 
  3. Singapore Airlines 
  4. Cathay Pacific 
  5. ANA 
  6. Etihad Airways 
  7. Turkish Airlines 
  8. EVA Air 
  9. Qantas Airways 
  10. Lufthansa
When rated according to region, Philippine Airlines did not make the list of the Best Airlines in Asia for 2016 either, while Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and All Nippon Airways claimed the top three spots.

The Best Airlines in Asia
  1. Singapore Airlines 
  2. Cathay Pacific 
  3. ANA All Nippon Airways 
  4. EVA Air 
  5. Garuda Indonesia 
  6. Hainan Airlines 
  7. Thai Airways 
  8. Asiana Airlines 
  9. Bangkok Airways 
  10. Japan Airlines
In the category for "Best Transpacific Airline," which assesses carriers operating routes between Asia/Australasia and North/South America based on the quality of their product and staff service, Taiwan-based EVA Air clinched the top spot, followed by ANA of Japan and Cathay Pacific of Hong Kong.

The Best Transpacific Airlines
  1. EVA Air 
  2. ANA All Nippon Airways 
  3. Cathay Pacific
Meanwhile, in the best low-cost airline category, AirAsia clinched the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, while Norwegian was named best long haul low-cost airline. The awards are based on a customer satisfaction assessment of product and staff service.

Best Low-Cost Airlines in Asia
  1. AirAsia 
  2. AirAsiaX 
  3. Indigo 
  4. Jetstar Asia 
  5. Scoot 
  6. Peach 
  7. Tigerair Singapore 
  8. SpiceJet 
  9. Spring Airlines 
  10. Nok Air
According to Air Asia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, in spite of receiving the coveted award for an eighth consecutive year, his airline intends to continue improving its customer service, while introducing new technologies that make flying easier. "We can be better," said Fernandes. "We want to improve our customer service, including how we communicate with our customers." Air Asia has affiliates in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and the Philippines.

Although Cebu Pacific did not place in the top-ten low-cost airlines in Asia, it did place in fifth place in the Best Low-Cost Airlines in Australia/Pacific category.

Best Low-Cost Airlines in Australia/Pacific
  1. Jetstar Airways 
  2. AirAsiaX 
  3. Scoot 
  4. Tigerair Australia 
  5. Cebu Pacific
Each year, travellers from around the world participate in the world's largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to determine the winners. With more than 19 million customers from 104 nationalities surveyed around the world, assessing standards in 41 key performance indicators, the Skytrax world airline awards are widely considered the Passengers Choice awards for airline performance.

14 comments:

  1. Not surprised at all! Because Filipinos love to rant and give our airlines failed ratings. Majority of Philippine carrier passengers are Filipinos. Skytrax use a crowd-sourcing rating system.

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    1. Its because Most Filipinos living abroad knows exactly what Pal is missing,,,would you like to travel in a longhaul flight that your seat have no personal IFE ? why would you like to pay extra for an On Air wifi ,If other Airlines are making it FREE for its economy class passengers? why Pal is selling $20-$50 for an advanced seat is this what they call PREMIUM Economy Seats?because i cannot find any difference with other free economy seats in legroom space ..they are all the same...same meals..same economy class service. the only thing which i guess most of Filipinos living abroad will agree is the Business Class section,,

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    2. Demonstrably false, Spyrow. Longhaul Scoot flights have no IFE for their long-haul flights (even in their "business class"). Free economy class wifi is a mixed bag, but the vast majority of airlines do not offer free wifi to economy class passengers, instead offering it to business or first class cabin passengers. Premium economy with PAL is aligned with the current premium economy offerings of US airlines: Main Cabin Extra (AA), Comfort+ (DL), and Economy Plus (UA) where legroom is the only plus. Admittedly, AA is slowly moving towards a "true" premium economy seat as found with a good number of non-US airlines, but nevertheless, PR is hardly alone in offering extra legroom and maybe things like extra baggage allowance or priority baggage as the only extra selling points for premium economy class. Also factor in the various configurations for domestic, regional, and long-haul flights.

      PR is by far not a premium airline and they openly admit it with the stated mission to move towards offering better service for all cabins. So if that is your point (that they are not a true premium airline), I will agree wholeheartedly. But the evidence of "standards" you provide is hardly evidence.

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  2. Philippine Airlines is not consistent in its IFE service. While its B777s are having IFE on each pax seats on C and Y, its A321s are totally zero. C class pax were loaned ipads while Y class pax seems like travelling on low cost airlines without IFE at all.
    With this kind of service, how can we expect PAL to land even in top 10 of the world's best?

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  3. PAL is suffering from the wrong cabin configurations that were ordered during the San Miguel ownership. Now, they are stuck with a young fleet of aircraft with very poor business class and economy seat configurations.

    Obviously they cannot sell them or have them exchanged for something else.

    I just hope that PAL will expedite the planned reconfiguration of the new A330s to make their wide body product consistent with B777 and the up and coming A350.

    With PAL's target to become five-star airline by 2020, we hope to feel the upgrades soon enough!

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    1. You're right. San Miguel Corporation faults. Muhka kasing PERA yung mga managenent ng San Miguel. Pera kasi ang inaatupag. Dapat lang i-boycott ang San Miguel at ang kanilang mga produkto tulad ng Purefoods, B-Meg, San Miguel Beer, SMC-based PBA teams (Star, Ginebra, at SMB), at lahat.

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  4. The solutions that PAL would do to:
    -Airbus A330-300 reconfiguration. This includes installing business class to all-econony class, economy-class reconfiguration from 9-abreast into 8-abreast, and personal and mainscreen monitors.
    -Airbus A321 in-flight entertainment (IFE) installation. This includes personal and mainscreen monitors for business and premium economy class and at least mainscreen monitors for regular economy class since this kind of aircraft is used for short-range flights.
    -Airbus A350-900XWB

    Good luck PAL. And for Cebu Pacific, improve your service.

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  5. I flew PR quite often, now only if necessary. Some things are already said before. Additionally: Staff inside PR airplanes are very kind, also the staff at check-in - but they are very slow! Food has no taste at all - unless ordering special meals. Seats are very small. Calling PAL costs a lot in the Philippines (no free numbers). If you want to book a seat or even worse an award flight, you must consider a lot of time for that, normally between 15-60min (incl. waiting time). Other airlines: maybe 2-5 min. Complimentary upgrades for Mabuhay Premium Elite members to Business Class? I never had any! The only positive things for me using PR are: safety records and sometimes quite cheap oneway flights.

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  6. i hope with new administration Philippine Aviation will improve in terms of services and other aspects in terms of flying as the best comfort in the sky.

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  7. This is expected. PAL's overall service is mediocre comapred to those in top list. I think PAL has to be honest and consider itself as a semi-low cost airline rather than a full service airline. Price-wise, PAL's fares are not cheap at all. For example, a regular route I take, MNL-BKK, Thai and PAL's fares are not much different. Sometime's TG is cheaper. But comparing the service of both, TG is far better than PAL.

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  8. Voyagers from over the globe partake every year on the planet's biggest carrier traveler fulfillment review to animated videos for business choose the honor victors.

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  9. Dubai-based Emirates clinched the top spot as the World's Best Airline for 2016, while Philippine Airlines finished in 83rd place.

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  10. Hey what a brilliant post I have come across and believe me I have been searching out for this similar kind of post for past a week and hardly came across this. Thank you very much and will look for more postings from you. world wide news

    ReplyDelete

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