Air New Zealand scoops international awards

Air New Zealand has scooped prizes in two recent international airline awards, and has also been voted the best airline in the world by British consumers. 

The Air Transport World journal selected Air New Zealand as its 2010 ‘Airline of the Year’.  The citation says the company’s “strong commitment to its staff, customers and shareholders and its embrace of environmental stewardship, combined with solid financial performance, make it a clear choice as the 2010 Airline of the Year”.

Air New Zealand has also been named the best airline in the Australia/Pacific region in the annual world airline awards by Skytrax.  These awards are based on surveys in the preceding year of nearly 18 million passengers of 100 different nationalities.  The passengers gave marks for customer service, comfort of seating, quality of food, lounges and cabin crew.

Apart from being the best airline in the region, Air New Zealand climbed from eight to fifth-best airline in the world.  The airline also won an award for staff service in the Australia/Pacific region.

In a triple whammy, Air New Zealand was also named best airline in the 2010 Which? Magazine awards in Britain, which were judged on customer service.

The airline received a maximum five-star rating for the quality of its online check-in, seat allocation, boarding arrangements, cleanliness, in-flight entertainment and cabin staff.  It got a value-for-money rating of 89%, compared with the industry average of 66%, and an impressive 98% of passengers said they would recommend the airline to a friend.