Words by Carlie Tucker
Yesterday, Emirates was named the World's Best Airline for 2016 by the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards. The airline also picked up the Best Airline in the Middle East and the World's Best Inflight Entertainment awards at the ceremony held at the Farnborough International Airshow in England.
It's a big win for the international carrier as the Skytrax awards represent a global benchmark of airline excellence. They are based on the results of the largest airline passenger satisfaction survey in the industry, covering quality standards across 41 key performance indicators. This year's awards included 19.2 million completed surveys covering 280 airlines with customers from more than 104 different countries.
Emirates is no stranger to praise from the Skytrax awards, having picked up 20 accolades since the awards were introduced in 2001. This includes being recognised as the best in the world three previous years (2001, 2002 and 2013) and the best in-flight entertainment for 12 years running.
Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline, commented on the airline's latest wins, saying "We are honoured to be recognised by the prestigious Skytrax awards. Emirates has always put our customers at the heart of what we do, and we work hard to deliver the very best experience possible to our customers at every touch point, every day, all around the world.
"We constantly invest in our product and services, both on the ground and in the air. We listen carefully to our customers, and then relentlessly challenge ourselves to deliver and exceed expectations. The fact that these awards are based on the direct feedback from passengers is gratifying and wonderful recognition for all of the hard work that’s gone into creating the Emirates experience.”
This latest sweep of awards is especially gratifying as the airline has invested in a number of product and service improvements over the past 12 months. This includes their new 777-300ER Business Class seat, expanding the global Emirates Lounge network to 39, launching new children's toys and activity kits both on-board and in the lounges and new amenity kits for First and Business Class travellers.
As the world's largest international airline, Emirates covers a wide network of 154 destinations in 81 different countries. It operates one of the world's most modern wide-body fleets, which are more efficient to operate and more comfortable. This fleet also enables the airline to continually improve, introducing the newest on-board products and services.
