Singapore Airlines voted second best airline in the world behind Qatar Airways

SINGAPORE — Qatar Airways has beaten Singapore Airlines (SIA) to the title of best airline in the world this year, at the 2019 World Airline Awards in Paris on Tuesday (June 18).

Last year, SIA clinched the top honour while Qatar was second. This year, the positions have switched.

With this latest award, Qatar Airways has also become the first airline to have been named the world’s best five times.

ANA All Nippon Airways came in third, while Cathay Pacific and Emirates rounded out the top five in this year’s awards.

Though it missed out on the biggest prize, SIA won accolades in four other categories: Best Airline in Asia, World's Best Cabin Crew, World's Best First Class and World's Best First Class Seat.

Qatar Airways was also named World’s Best Business Class, World’s Best Business Class Seat and Best Airline in the Middle East.

AirAsia was crowned the world’s Best Low-cost Airline, and EVA Air the cleanest.

Mr Edward Plaisted, the chief executive officer of Skytrax, which organises the awards, said: “All of today’s award-winning airlines are voted for by customers, and the focus of our annual survey is for travellers to make their own, personal choices as to which airlines they consider to be best.” 

The winners of the 19th World Airline Awards were determined through an online survey, with 21.65 million eligible entries collected from Sept 2018 to May 2019.

Voters who took part came from over 100 countries and picked their favourites out of more than 300 airlines that were included in the survey.