Virgin Blue voted best low cost airline in the world

[Wirraway]

AAP

Virgin Blue soars to new heights
voted best low cost airline in the world.

Virgin Blue has been voted the world’s ‘Best Low Cost Carrier’ in the Travel Quality.com Aviation Awards for 2003, taking the top honours over well-known low fare carriers US-based Southwest, Irish carrier Ryanair and UK-based airline easyJet.

The survey listed some of the world’s most popular airlines and offered eight voting categories in the poll, including Best Long Haul Economy Class, Best Long Haul Business Class, Best Short Haul Economy Class and Best Airport.

Virgin Blue received the No 1 spot in the low cost carrier category with 26% of the votes and was the only Australian airline to receive a placing in any category of the 2003 Awards.

Mr Andy Smulders from Travel Quality.com said, “Considering the short amount of time Virgin Blue has been in the market, even we were taken aback by the popularity of the airline. It’s made a big impact in a challenging industry and what really shone through, was its commitment to good old fashioned friendly customer service.”

Southwest Airlines and Ryanair took second and third place respectively.

Virgin Blue Chief Executive Officer, Brett Godfrey, said, “We came into this industry less than three years ago determined to offer an affordable high quality product, and being recognised as the Best Low Cost Carrier above some of the most respected in the business is testimony to the ongoing commitment and hard work of our people.”

He continued, “On behalf of our fantastic team, we are honoured to receive such a huge accolade, considering the tough competition and the fact that the Ryanair’s and Southwest’s of the world are very much more established in their respective markets.”

This latest achievement joins a growing list of awards presented to Virgin Blue, which last year was named the ‘Skytrax Best Low Fare Carrier’, in addition to receiving the Teleperformance CRM (Call Centre) Grand Prix two years running.

With plans to begin international services in the near future, Virgin Blue is strongly positioned in the market having also been ranked among Asia Pacific’s top ten brands in the Interbrand ‘Survey on Brands’ (May 2001) as well as being recognised as having the 3rd best Corporate Reputation in Australia (Australian Financial Review 10/12/02).

Best Longhaul Economy Class
1. American Airlines
2. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
3. Virgin Atlantic Airways
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Cathay Pacific Airways


Best Longhaul Premium Economy Class
1. Virgin Atlantic Airways
2. British Airways
3. United Airlines
4. BMI
5. SAS Scandinavian Airlines



Best Longhaul Business Class
1. Virgin Atlantic Airways
2. Cathay Pacific Airways
3. Air Canada
4. American Airlines
5. Singapore Airlines


Best Longhaul First Class
1. Singapore Airlines
2. American Airlines
3. Aerolineas Argentinas
4. Cathay Pacific Airways
5. Emirates



Best Shorthaul Economy Class
1. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
2. Turkish Airlines
3. British Airways
4. Lauda Air
5. SAS Scandinavian Airlines

Best Shorthaul First/Business Class
1. Singapore Airlines
2. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
3. Emirates
4. Air New Zealand
5. Malaysian Airlines


Best Low Cost Airline
1. Virgin Blue
2. Southwest Airlines
3. Ryanair
4. Virgin Express
5. Easyjet

Best Airport
1. Amsterdam Schiphol
2. Istanbul - Int. Ataturk Airport
3. Dubai International Airport
4. Detroit - Edward McNamara Int.
5. Hong Kong - Chek Lap Kok Airport

http://www.travelquality.com/

[T53C]

WHAT? No mention of Qantas? I'm shocked! :eek: :D

[reggiespotter]

Oh dear! This award has to be vergin' on the rediculous?? These whingers from BNE (the Poms have trained them well!!) are going to be unbearable once the PR machine starts pumping.

And, by the way, how come they can dump '000s of seats in the market at $33 net to the punters when not so long ago they were bleating like stuck pigs alleging that the Red Rat was, in their (jaundiced?) view dumping capacity. Have we heard a peep from QantasLink (nee Eastern) about DJ dumpimg $33 fares from Sydney to Coffs? With the high level of taxes unfortunately imposed on the the Aussie traveller, how can DJ claim or even pretend that they are selling these seats at economic levels? Where is prof fels when you want him?

[hoss]

What I find interesting is that a lot of Star Alliance Airlines and others get a mention and not many from One World.:rolleyes:

[Sperm Bank]

Settle down reggie. Anyone would think you have been knocked back. Say what you like mate, the statistics are in the book and the book don't lie! No amount of Virgin bashing by you and your ilk will change a single thing, nor anyone's peception! Best you go outside and kick the dog!! Good boy!

[qfpaypacket]

Virgin maintains its cost advantage by taking advantage of its employees, to the detriment of the rest of the industry.
I realise that its employees probably had no better option, but a lot of other people did. By lowering conditions Australia wide they are doing us all a disservice.
I don't understand why they all defend the cmpany that is clearly exploiting them by paying them obviously less than what was the going rate. I wish they would stop acting as if they were the champions of the travelling public like brainwashed clowns........And I certainly haven't been knocked back

[RENURPP]

You have to wonder about the validity of these results!
I work in the industry, I travel as a passenger quite regularly, I have never heard of this award.

Then you consider the number of passengers that have actually flown with Virgin Blue v these other airlines and I smell a rat.
Do the people from PR have very dry tongues at the moment from licking stamps.
As far as old fashion quality and service, I think not, it is anything but old fashion.

[Wirraway]

The Results of the TravelQuality.com Aviation Awards 2003.

TravelQuality.com has finalised the TravelQuality.com Aviation Awards for 2003.
The TravelQuality.com Aviation Awards, commissioned by our website, was open for voting until November 30, 2002. Travellers and Visitors of our website were eligible to vote only once with the same IP number. The total number of eligible votes received during the six months period was 21,371.

[RaTa]

Wirraway I see by your "profile" that you are retired. You mention in your last post "our website", so I'm curious to whose web site it is.

[apacau]

Ummmm AA best longhaul economy with EK outside the top 5??? What kind of joke is this?

[Wirraway]

RaTa

I cut and pasted from their site as to how the poll was
taken, the site has nothing to do with me.

Wirraway

[Snowballs]

Renupp, the poor red rat didn’t rate a mention in any category. Either their passengers are an apathetic lot or not enough of their passengers thought enough of their services to bother to vote. I suspect the majority of the voters are overseas tourists / business travelers, who probably voted as ‘they’ see it, in an unbiased manner. There are lots of this type of survey done in other countries.;)

[RENURPP]

21,371 in total says it all. 21,371 passengers from all the airlines entered.

As I said I had never heard of the poll and I suspect not many others have. e.g. what percentage of travelling public world wide is 21,371??

At a guess you probably only need a hundred or so people to poll to win this in Australia. How many of then were passenegers and how many PR people or employees.

Snowballs
To make this a legitimate poll the passengers would have had to experience more than one airline wouldn't they, how else can they decide which is better. Keeping that in mind, are you asking are all passengers appathetic as with the numbers shown not many VB passenegers voted either.

[EPIRB]

Only 26% voted for Virgin, hardly an overwhelming majority. I wonder how the result was spread?

[The_Cutest_of_Borg]

Yes, one must suspect the methodology of such a survey.

So 26% of the worldwide travellers who answered this survey voted VB as the best? So of the 21,000 odd who voted, at least 5000 of them had travelled on VB, and also have travelled on one of the other low fare airline enough to make a comparison??!!

Riiiiiiiiiiight!

Even as I type this I am laughing... I wonder if the VB PR types will actually have the gall to use it.

What am I thinking of... of course they will use it?!!?:rolleyes:

[Sperm Bank]

I dont smell a rat, I dont see any under handed tactics and I certainly dont understand all this brain dead diatribe you guys are carrying on with. Wirraway has been reporting facts now for a good while. I have not once noted any favouritism to either Virgin or Qantas. If you can't understand a very simple survey thats fine, but please dont drag this out into some sort of vindictive smeer campaign against Virgin.

Virgin pay is pathetic, amongst the worst in the Western world and the bosses should be absolutely disgusted with their miserly antics. What that has to do with this award from the travel industry is beyond me!

Go anywhere in the world and one thing is common, QF cabin crew do not have the greatest of reputations. Not a myth, but fact. If you have not been all over the world you are hardly qualified to comment. I believe QF management are working hard to rectify this problem and as they get rid of the dead wood, things will undoubtably improve.

Welcome to the 21st century guys!

[Woomera]

Sperm Bank thank you.
I dont smell a rat, I dont see any under handed tactics and I certainly dont understand all this brain dead diatribe you guys are carrying on with. Wirraway has been reporting facts now for a good while. I have not once noted any favouritism to either Virgin or Qantas. If you can't understand a very simple survey thats fine, but please dont drag this out into some sort of vindictive smeer campaign against Virgin.

About says it all.!

[Snowballs]

While this survey is of perhaps limited participation from Oz travelers, it does bring out the inbred mentality at the red rat if you read many of the responses. The rat offers an efficient service within Australia and to some overseas destinations that satisfy a lot of Australian travelers. Any person who has spent time overseas will quickly discover their offerings are “very Australian” and offer little interest to the vast majority of overseas (non Australian) travelers. Granted they are trying to change the image but they still have a long way to go if they are ever to become anything other than a fringe player internationally. The respondents piling crap on VB and this survey are part of the inbred problem. At least VB are trying to be different and create a refreshing change of image. The tirades about VB’s conditions are totally ignorant and part of the problem at the red rat !:o

[HGW]

I work for Virgin and receive the equivalent pay as QF pays for the same position. Non pilot but middle management.

I'm happyand have huge opportunities coming up, ie Blue Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, Patrick Air Services, etc.

I would vote Virgin as the one of the best employers with the best opportunities as well as a great airline to fly.:) ;)

[Freek Flyer]

But, the validity of the survey, as mentioned before, must be in question. For any survey to be valid ALL the candidates in the survey must be trialled by each respondent. Otherwise, for instance, Joe Bloggs flys with AA, has a good trip, votes in favour. How does this represent the best airline, but merely that Loe bloggs enjoyed his flight. I'm not saying all respondents to the survey would be in this category, but... makes you wonder.

A valid award of this kind would need to be completed by unbiased judges (larger number the better) who have flown ALL airlines in the running, then, and only then, will it be a valid award.

I have nothing against Virgin, Maybe they are in fact the best low cost airline in the world??

Just my thoughts

Cheers All
:)

[BUSTACLOUD]

Early days for virgine Blue. Take a look at industrial relations with easyjet and Ryanair.

AA top economic fare airline. Massive joke !!

What about Singapore Airlines or Emirates for that matter! I believe Emirates won Skytrax awards twice in a row SO WHO is P****** in WHOSE POCKETS?

Been on all the above airlines and AA is *****!!
Its all PR Crap anyway!!:o :o :o :rolleyes: :o :o :o

[McIce]

Snowballs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rat offers an efficient service within Australia and to some overseas destinations that satisfy a lot of Australian travelers. Any person who has spent time overseas will quickly discover their offerings are “very Australian” and offer little interest to the vast majority of overseas (non Australian) travelers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I live in Oz and travel to outwith this country on a regular basis.
My method of booking consists of searching a few tried and trusted travel agents web sites, getting the cheapest price and booking my seat.
Not once have I ever flown Qantas or their sister airline BA as their prices dont even come close to what others can give.
I will give you an example what I got yesterday for 2 adults and 3 kids from the Uk one way
Malaysian $7,000
Sigapore Airlines $ 4,160
Qantas $10,450
BA $25,685
Maybe if they became more competative outside Oz more people would travel with them and they might get to put an appearance in on the aforementioned polls

[The_Cutest_of_Borg]

Ever heard of Yield management systems, McIce, or know how they work?

If BA charged that on every seat on every flight, there would be no BA. I suspect what you saw then was the price for the last five seats on the aeroplane and the QF ones were for the last 15 or so.

You book early enough on QF you can beat VB fares, notice how VB have gone away from the lowest fare type advertising of late?

[Big Hairy Potatoes]

It amazes me how people go on about the pricing of both airlines in this country. To say that if you book on Qantas early enough that the price will be cheaper is not looking at the big picture.
Until Virgin blue came into Australia the price of air travel was one of the highest in the world. Some competition arrives and the prices come down. If they are sustainable now, why were'nt they the prices that they are now all the time. I will agree that sometimes qantas is cheaper than Virgin most times, but look whose pricing is more consistent and more flexible. There are more conditions attached to the cheaper Qantas flights.

[reggiespotter]

Duscussion has meandered away from 'The Poll'. As any spin doctor will confess , "you don't spoil a good story with the facts'. It's a bit the same here. A poll is a poll is a poll. Don't spoil it by saying that those polled were from the dark side of the moon and had never been to earth, let alone Oz. But then, who's to say that DJ is not 'keeping the air fare' up there? What a joke.

[McIce]

Sorry the C of B
I forgot I was on the Dununder forum
I must remember not to say anything that will upset the 'quantas' brigade :rolleyes: