AirAsia has been named the World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline for the fourth year in a row and its maiden title as the World’s Leading Inflight Service at the 23rd World Travel Awards (WTA) Grand Final held in Male, Maldives. Asia’s largest low-cost carrier beat contenders from five continents to secure the award, including Ryanair, easyJet, Jetstar Airways, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Norwegian, Kulula, Mango, fastjet, flydubai, Air Arabia, flynas and West Air.
“What a thrill to win World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline for the fourth straight year. It’s a great honour to round out what has been a great year for AirAsia, not just financially but in terms of recognition from the industry,” Group Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said today. AirAsia also won the World’s Leading Inflight Service title for the first time ever, beating full-service carriers Etihad Airways, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Qantas Airways, Lufthansa, American Airlines and Air Canada. The win builds on AirAsia’s success earlier this year when it secured Asia’s Leading Inflight Service award from WTA for the first time. “I’m also super proud of our first World’s Leading Inflight Service award.
I’ve always said we have amazing crew and amazing inflight products, and we’ve proven it by beating not one, not two, not three, but eight full-service carriers for the prize,” he said in a statement. He said there are more to come for AirAsia as the airline is always working on more innovations, and not just for inflight. “Right now, we are exploring ways to make the airport experience better. One thing we’re looking at is fast-tracking guests who share their travel profile with immigration authorities. We expect to run the trial at selected airports in Asean in the not-too-distant future, so keep an eye out for it,” he said.
The WTA serves to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the travel and tourism industry, as chosen by thousands of travel professionals and high-end tourism consumers. Airlines are judged on customer satisfaction and service quality, overall business performance, product innovation, staff relations and development, corporate social responsibility and contribution to local community, commitment to sustainable policies and fulfillment of long-term corporate vision.
AirAsia is Asia’s leading low-cost carrier, with an extensive network of more than 120 destinations in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and Africa. It is also the only airline to fly direct to all 10 Asean countries, including some 60 unique routes in the region. AirAsia was also named World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for the eighth year in a row at the 2016 Skytrax World Airline Awards in July.