Singapore Airlines came second, followed by Emirates, Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Cathay Pacific. Asian and Middle Eastern airlines dominated the top of the rankings again, though Turkish Airlines, which recently launched its first Australian routes, Air France and Swiss also made the top 10.
Qantas’ results come after a bruising 12 months for the airline, which saw the early departure of long-term chief executive Alan Joyce in September to make way for chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson.
Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson.Credit: Oscar Colman
On taking the reins, Hudson apologised to passengers and promised to repair Qantas’ reputation with customers, making a major change to the airline’s frequent flyer scheme. However, since her tenure began Qantas has been ordered to pay more than $120 million over a scandal that saw the airline selling tickets for flights it had already cancelled.
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After last year’s poor result, a Qantas spokesperson claimed the issues faced by the airline during the 2022-23 survey period had impacted the rankings and that “a lot has changed since and if you ran this survey today, the results would be very different”. The survey period for this year ran from September 2023 to May 2024.
The award results reflect similar surveys that found Qantas’ reputation as one of Australia’s most trusted brands has collapsed.
Commenting on this year’s results, a Qantas spokesperson said: “We have been listening to our customers and our people and have been acting on this feedback with significant investment already underway. We want our customers to feel the difference from the changes that we have put in place and, in recent months, we have seen customer satisfaction levels improve.”
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The World Airline Awards are based on online customer-satisfaction surveys conducted by consultancy firm Skytrax, with passengers from 100 countries taking part and more than 350 airlines featuring in the final results. Skytrax claims the awards are the world’s largest airline satisfaction survey.
Some aviation experts have questioned Skytrax’s methodology and lack of transparency over its awards process. According to some reports, Skytrax has refused to answer questions related to how its survey system works or even what the business actually does.
Airlines, however, are quick to trumpet the results when favourable.
