And the winner is ... Asiana!

[JohnMcGhie]

Well done, everyone. From my experience as an SLF this award is very well-deserved. Pushing back in Sydney on the way to Seoul, I was astonished to see several large, hairy Australian ground-crew lined up waving the flight off. It happened again, all the way to Seattle, and back...

You would have to BE Australian to understand the level of coercion required to get Australians to display any kind of formal courtesy like that :-)

As a passenger, tired, lonely, and a long way from home, you would not believe the lift you get from thinking that someone, somewhere gives a whether you have a good flight or not...

The top 10 places in the Airline of the Year Award : THE WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS™ - SKYTRAX
1. Asiana Airlines
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Qatar Airways
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Air New Zealand
6. Etihad Airways
7. Qantas Airways
8. Emirates
9. Thai Airways
10. Malaysia Airlines

[BarbiesBoyfriend]

Last time we pushed off at Glasgow.........

What do you want?

ARSE KISSING?

You need a social worker, not a push crew.

[abc1]

John, As the previous post puts it succinctly, you can't expect anything more except contempt form a person allegedly employed in customer service.

Addressing the world with''where the bloody hell are you''shows what the Australian way of customer service is all about.

[UnderneathTheRadar]

I flew JAL from Shanghai to Narita last year and was astonished to see similar - all the ground crew were lined up and as we started to taxi they all, in perfect unison, gave a bow to the departing aircraft.

Arriving in Japan, we soon figured out why - everyone bows at everyone, but for the Chinese, given their history with Japan - still made it intriguing

[Pedota]

Here’s a version with some commentary . . . and I have highlighted mentions of Australian and NZ airlines.

World's best airline named as Qantas slips in rankings

CRAIG PLATT - THE AGE
May 21, 2010 - 1:32PM


Qantas slipped to seventh place in the annual World Airline Awards, while Asiana was named the world's best.

South Korea's Asiana Airlines has been named the airline of the year at the annual World Airline Awards.

Qantas lost another spot in the 2010 awards announced last night in Hamburg, Germany, dropping to seventh place, down from sixth last year. In 2008, it was rated the world's third best airline.

The annual awards by Skytrax are based on surveys with more than 17 million passengers, carried out over 10 months.

Passengers rate airlines on customer service, comfort of seating, quality of food, lounges and cabin crew.

Air New Zealand overtook Qantas to become the best rated airline in the Australia/Pacific region, climbing from eighth last year to fifth this year.

Last year's top airline, Cathay Pacific slipped back to fourth place, while Singapore maintained its spot as the number two airline.

Asiana ranked third last year. Skytrax chairman Edward Plaisted praised the airline's commitment to customer service. “Asiana Airlines are clearly meeting and exceeding their customers' expectations,” he said.

Asian airlines dominated the award categories, with the full service airlines joined by AirAsia winning the Best Low-Cost Airline award and Garuda Indonesia picking up the Most Improved award.

Qantas took out two awards for its premium economy class – Best Premium Economy and Best Premium Economy Seat. Virgin Blue also received an award for best low-cost carrier in the Australia/Pacific region.

The final top 10 ranking in the awards were:

1. Asiana Airlines

2. Singapore Airlines

3. Qatar Airways

4. Cathay Pacific

5. Air New Zealand

6. Etihad Airways

7. Qantas Airways

8. Emirates

9. Thai Airways

10. Malaysia Airlines

Other awards announced included:

Best Low-Cost Airline Worldwide
AirAsia

Most Improved Airline
Garuda Indonesia

Best Cabin Staff
Singapore Airlines

Best Inflight Entertainment
Emirates

Best Airport Services
Thai Airways

Best Economy Class
Malaysia Airlines

Best Premium Economy Class
Qantas

Best Business Class
Qatar Airways

Best First Class
Etihad Airways

Best Airline: Transatlantic
Virgin Atlantic

Best Airline: Transpacific
Cathay Pacific

Best Airline: Australia/Pacific
Air New Zealand

Best Airline: Europ
Lufthansa

Best Airline: India/Central Asia
Kingfisher Airlines

Best Airline: Middle East
Qatar Airways

Best Airline: North America
Air Canada

Best Airline: South East Asia
Singapore Airlines

Best Airline Lounge - Business Class
Virgin Atlantic

Best Airline Lounge - First Class
Thai Airways

Best Airline Seat - Business Class
Singapore Airlines

Best Airline Seat - Economy Class
Kingfisher Airlines

Best Airline Seat - First Class
Etihad Airways

Best Airline Seat - Premium Economy Class
Qantas Airways

Best Low-Cost Airline Australia/Pacific
Virgin Blue

Best Onboard Catering - Business Class
Qatar Airways

Best Onboard Catering - Economy Class
Turkish Airlines

Best Onboard Catering - First Class
Etihad Airways

[stubby jumbo]

GULP

Prepare for the internal Public Floggings and finger pointing.

"Oh......its the Cabin Crews' fault.....tooo many gays !"

Aw.......its the Pilots fault-landings are too hard !"

Gosh......its the Engineers fault......aircraft breaking down all the time "!

Man.....its those hairy blokes that drive the tugs and wave to the aircraft on the ramp........they look too messy !"

Manuel....another VB and packet of chips please

[JohnMcGhie]

John, As the previous post puts it succinctly, you can't expect anything more except contempt form a person allegedly employed in customer service.

Addressing the world with''where the bloody hell are you''shows what the Australian way of customer service is all about.

Oh, that's a little harsh :-) Someone thank BBF for his kind offer, but -- ummm -- "no thanks!". Now, if it was Barbie herself...

"Where the bloody hell are ya?" (note the use of "ya"...) is Australian for "Wish you were here." Sadly, it does not translate into any form of English. And the highly-paid advertising agency should have known that.

As an advertising slogan, it's like offering Vegemite to an American: amusing, but we really shouldn't do it...

I can only assume that Asiana and Air New Zealand got where they are through good management, appropriate investment, and bloody hard work. My experience with Qantas and Jetstar leads me to suspect than a little more of the first two would produce a similar result

And who "moved" this thread? This is not a Dunnunder story; the Skytrax Award was International, last time I looked...

Cheers

[Checklist Charlie]

I have to agree that Asiana do the 'airline travel' thing pretty well.

As to

And who "moved" this thread?

, one can only suspect the usual precious R&N sanitisers to remove anything posted by a colonial on their forum.

CC

[Cookie7]

Oh......its the Cabin Crews' fault.....tooo many gays !

stubby jumbo, have you been hanging out with Jason Akermanis?

[Pedota]

direct.no.speed comments

No mention of the Jetstar experience I note.

Nor Tiger for that matter . . .

[KABOY]

C'mon this is irrelevant, we all know that QF cabin crew are world leaders in safety not service thats why they get paid so well.

All those other airlines are are using inflight butlers not safety personnel! One day Skytrax will realise this and create the worlds safest airline award or should that be the worlds most experienced airline award?!

[fatbus]

I needed a good laugh

[Sunstar320]

No mention of the Jetstar experience I note.

which means we are not bombarded with all those tv ads, newspaper ads, emails blabbing about how good they are

They spend millions on tv commercials advertising they have won these awards. Blah Blah Blah...

[Icarus2001]

If you listen to the BS that VB spin to their staff ..."we are not a low cost carrier we are a new world carrier that value adds for our guests".

Riiiiggghtt.

[Worrals in the wilds]

Pushing back in Sydney on the way to Seoul, I was astonished to see several large, hairy Australian ground-crew lined up waving the flight off. It happened again, all the way to Seattle, and back...

Certainly not an Asiana exclusive. It happens all the time at YBBN with a number of carriers/ground handling service providers. One Qantas LAME has a santa hat to wear at Christmas for his wave.

[Tee Emm]

From my experience as an SLF this award is very well-deserved. Pushing back in Sydney on the way to Seoul, I was astonished to see several large, hairy Australian ground-crew lined up waving the flight off. It happened again, all the way to Seattle, and back...

Couldn't care less about the nice waving ground staff and you beaut in flight service. As long as the pilots are not affected by their local culture and do consistently safe well flown stable approaches and don't run into hills, then I am happy to fly with most airlines.

[ab33t]

Never heard of Asiana Airlines ?

[DEFCON4]

Profits

Awards dont translate into profits

[bushy]

The head of CASA once said that CASA must be doing their job well and quoted wawrds won by Ansett to prove it.
A few weeks later he shut Ansett down as he said they were unsafe.

[stubby jumbo]

.....good point Bushy.

How the hell does Garuda win......MOST IMPROVED.

IMPROVED from WHAT to WHAT ???

From Bunny Hopping at 500kph to Greasing it in.

This award is a hollow marketing sham.