Air New Zealand Named Airline of the Year By AirlineRatings.com

PERTH, Australia, Jan. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AirlineRatings.com the world's foremost safety and product rating website has announced the selection of Air New Zealand as its Airline of the Year for 2014.

www.AirlineRatings.com celebrates and promotes excellence in the airline industry and the pinnacle of these efforts is its Airline Excellence Awards.

Air New Zealand is being honoured for its in-flight innovations, financial performance, operational safety and motivation of its staff that have stamped the airline an industry trendsetter.

The editorial team, one of the world's most awarded and experienced, lauded Air New Zealand's commitment to a young fleet and its continual focus on the environment. The airline also won Best Premium Economy Class.

Airlineratings.com Editor Geoffrey Thomas said, "AirlineRatings.com editorial team took special note of Air New Zealand's comprehensive long haul offering which has two multi-award winning products in the Skycouch and Spaceseat for economy minded passengers."

"Quite simply Air New Zealand is an airline of first choice. And given the airline's location and the country's size its performance is even more remarkable."

Air New Zealand's Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon said, "These awards are a great way to kick off 2014 and reaffirm the hard work of more than 11,000 Air New Zealanders across our business, including airport and lounge teams, flight and cabin crew, cargo, operations and ramp staff, contact centres and corporate staff who all work tirelessly to deliver a consistent customer experience."

Other winners in the Airline Excellence Awards are: Emirates, Qantas, Jetstar, Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, Cathay Pacific, Swiss International, Air Canada, JetBlue, Norwegian and flydubai.

Scooping three awards Emirates, one of the industry's leading lights, has been awarded Best First Class, Best IFE and Best Long Haul Airline based in the Middle-East and Africa. The editors noted that Emirates is consistently amongst the finest in the industry across all aspects of service delivery and operational safety.

The Qantas Group also picked up three awards. Qantas was awarded Best Lounges and Best Economy Class, while Jetstar was named Best Low Cost Airline in Asia. AirlineRatings.com editors praised Qantas' domestic economy class product stating that it was clearly the world's best while the airline's domestic lounges are outstanding.

The Singapore Airlines group picked up two awards: Best Regional Airline for subsidiary Silk Air and Best Long Haul Airline based in Asia/Pacific. The editors said that Singapore Airlines is another industry standout that has consistently set the industry agenda.

Cathay Pacific picked up Best Business Class and the award adds to a string of accolades the airline has won for its business class offering.

For value and safety in the Low Cost Airline sector the editors selected JetBlue for the Americas, Norwegian in Europe and flydubai for the Middle-East/Africa. The editors noted that these three airlines and Jetstar in Asia are clear industry leaders in innovation and bringing people together.

For excellence in Long Haul the editors selected Air Canada for the Americas, Swiss International for Europe as well as Emirates for the Middle-East/Africa and Singapore Airlines for Asia/Pacific.

AirlineRatings.com has also announced its top ten airlines for 2014.

Heading the list is Air New Zealand followed by Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Qantas making up the top five. The editors also recognised Etihad Airways (6th), Royal Jordanian Airlines (7th) Swiss International (8th), Virgin Atlantic (9th) and All Nippon Airways (10th).

About AirlineRatings.com

AirlineRatings was launched in June 2013 and safety and product rates 450 airlines using its unique seven-star rating system. It has been used by hundreds of thousands of passengers from 207 countries. It has become the industry standard for safety and product rating. The editorial team is arguably one of the world's most experienced with almost 40 international and national awards. They have also authored or co-authored more than 27 industry books.

For more information, contact:

AirlineRatings.com Editor Geoffrey Thomas +61 41 793 6610 (24/7)
Email: Geoffrey.Thomas@AirlineRatings.com