Qatar Airways is voted the World’s Best Airline for the sixth time at the 2021 World Airline Awards

News / Qatar Airways is voted the World’s Best Airline for the sixth time at the 2021 World Airline Awards

Qatar Airways, named as Airline of the Year 2021, with Singapore Airlines ranked 2nd, and ANA All Nippon Airways in 3rd place, out of more than 350 airlines included in the survey results

Most of 2020 and 2021 has been a catastrophic period for the world airline industry, as passenger demand plummeted and countries across the world were affected by lockdowns and severe travel restrictions. The Skytrax customer survey operated for 23 months (September 2019 to July 2021), with the 2021 Awards representing a mix of more normal travel times combined with some travel during the global pandemic. Evaluating the Top 20 airlines, there have been some up and down movements versus 2019 results, although a core of airlines still dominate these higher positions.

Heading up the winners is Qatar Airways, named as Airline of the Year 2021, with Singapore Airlines ranked 2nd, and ANA All Nippon Airways in 3rd place, out of more than 350 airlines included in the survey results.

Qatar Airways also receives the awards for the World’s Best Business Class, the World’s Best Business Class Seat and the Best Airline in the Middle East.

Singapore Airlines, ranked No 2 worldwide, wins the top accolade for the World’s Best Cabin Crew, and is also honoured with awards for the World’s Best First Class, the Best Airline in Asia and the World’s Best First Class Seat.

ANA All Nippon Airways maintains its No 3 global ranking, and repeats its earlier success by winning the World’s Best Airport Services award. Winning the 2021 award as the World’s Cleanest Airline is a particularly high profile success during the global pandemic.

Saudi Arabian Airlines wins the 2021 award as the World’s Most Improved Airline, ahead of Rwandair in 2nd place and JetSmart in 3rd position. This is a key award that reflects an airline’s Quality improvement across the entire Awards programme, evaluating an airline’s change in the global rating, and their performance improvements in different award categories.

Some of the Category winners are shown below, and to view the full 2021 World Airline Awards results, use the A-Z Award Winners page.