SINGAPORE, December 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

A panel of international travellers has declared that the best on board food is served by Turkish Airlines, according to Skyscanner.

The flight comparison site included 19 international airlines from all corners of the world in the study and ranked them according to the scores they received from passengers.  More than 100 passengers from around the world were asked to score the airline food on presentation and taste.

Turkish Airlines took first place with a score of 86% for its menu which includes such dishes as stuffed eggplant and walnut pear tart.  As well as standard meals, the airline also offers a range of special meals including children's, Kosher, vegetarian and seafood options.

In second place is Singapore Airlines, on which Gordon Ramsay has previously offered his expertise as part of their culinary panel, while Etihad took third place ahead of UAE rival Emirates which came in 5^th behind Aer Lingus.

The full ranking:

    Airline               Score
    Turkish Airlines      86
    Singapore Airlines    81
    Etihad                80
    Aer Lingus            78
    Emirates              77
    Cathay Pacific        75
    KLM                   75
    Qantas                72
    Aeroflot              71
    Air France            70
    Iberia                65
    SAS                   64
    United Airlines       62
    British Airways       60
    Qatar Airways         57
    Virgin Atlantic       57
    Alitalia              54
    Lufthansa             53
    American Airlines     47.5

Mary Porter Skyscanner's food expert and one half of pop up restaurant Kitchen Porter's, comments:

"The stereotype of the barely edible inflight meal appears to be a thing of the past.  In today's highly competitive marketplace airlines have to stand out from one and another, ensure the passengers' on board experience is a positive one and ultimately generate customer loyalty. Inflight meals are a key way of doing this and recent years have seen a huge investment in this area with many leading chefs being brought on board by airlines to help develop their offering.

"This investment in food appears to have been successful - many reviewers in our study described food as being 'delicious' or 'tasty' and over half of the airlines included in the study achieved a score of 70% or more."

About Skyscanner

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SOURCE Skyscanner