Sarah-Marie has seen some great flight deals while researching for her next holiday, but wants to know if she can trust Asian airlines.
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Q. Sarah-Marie
I have been researching our next holiday and have seen some amazing flight deals with some Asian airlines, but my husband is unsure if they are as safe as flying with Qantas. I have tried to explain that just because Malaysian Airlines had a plane go missing that it is unfair to lump all Asian airlines into the same basket. What are the best Asian airlines, and how do I convince him that we should take advantage of these amazing deals?
A. Your husband is right about Qantas being one of the world’s safest airlines, consistently rated among the top few airlines and without a single fatality in the jet era. However, there are many other airlines that are extremely close when it comes to safety, many of them Asian. Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, All Nippon Airlines and Royal Jordanian Airlines are just some of the Asian airlines to score remarkably well on the safety scale.
In terms of the best Asian airlines, AirlineRatings.com recently announced its best airlines for 2019, and it was an Asian airline that took out the coveted Airline of the Year award – Singapore Airlines.
The AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards, judged by seven editors with over 200 years’ industry experience, combines major safety and government audits, with 12 key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger reviews profitability, investment rating, product offerings, and staff relations.
AirlineRatings editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas said: “In our objective analysis, Singapore Airlines came out number one in many of our audit criteria, which is a great performance.
“For years, Singapore Airlines has been the gold standard and now it is back to its best, leading in passenger innovations and new state-of-the-art aircraft models.
“The editors said that the competition for top spot was tight with Air New Zealand, Qantas Airways and Qatar Airways just being nudged out,” said Mr Thomas.
All of the top 10 airlines in the list were from Asia or Australasia. Aside from Singapore Airlines, the other Asian airlines to finish inside the top 10 of the airline excellence awards were: Qatar Airways, Emirates, All Nippon Airways, EVA Air, Cathay Pacific Airways and Japan Airlines.
Which is your preferred airline when you fly overseas? Which airline would you prefer to avoid?
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