Cathay Pacific: the world's best airline 2009

Cathay Pacific is the world's best airline as awarded at in the annual Skytrax awards. Then came Singapore Airlines in position 2 followed by Qantas. As mentioned by the age.com.au, "the annual Skytrax awards are among the most highly regarded in the industry, with the results based on surveys of more than 16 million air passengers conducted over eight months."

"A factor behind the Cathay Pacific win is clearly the consistency of product and service that they provide to their customers," he said. "Not only are Cathay Pacific satisfying their passengers onboard flights, but the ratings they achieved for their airport operations in Hong Kong also played a considerable part in this success".  Malaysia Airlines was awarded for the world's best cabin staff, the sixth time the airline has won the award in the past ten years, now that's a great achievement too. Singapore Airlines won for best first class, Etihad for best business class and Qatar for best economy class. Also Qantas's first class lounge at Sydney Airport is the world's second best, after Thai Airways lounge in Bangkok. So here is the list!

Airline of the Year 2009      

1. Cathay Pacific
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Asiana Airlines
4. Qatar Airways
5. Emirates
6. Qantas
7. Etihad Airways
8. Air New Zealand
9. Malaysia Airlines
10. Thai Airways

Best cabin staff

1. Malaysia Airlines
2. Asiana Airlines
3. Thai Airways
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Cathay Pacific

Best in-flight entertainment

1. Emirates
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Virgin Atlantic
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Qatar Airways

Best first class

1. Singapore Airlines
2. Emirates
3. Qatar Airways
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Thai Airways

Best business class

1. Etihad Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Virgin Atlantic
4. British Airways
5. Air New Zealand

Best economy class

1. Qatar Airways
2. Asiana Airlines
3. Air New Zealand
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Malaysia Airlines

(Source: theage.com.au)