Kenya Airways (KQ) has risen 10 places in the latest global ranking of airlines to position 79, trailing its regional rival Ethiopian Airlines that ranked among the top 50 carriers.
Skytrax World Airline Awards had placed KQ in the 89th position in its previous report that ranks the world’s best airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines, which rose nine places to position 37 and South African Airways (67) were the best African national carriers in the top 100 list despite SAA dropping 21 places from the 2019 ranking.
Air Maroc of Morocco is the fourth-best regional airline in the continent followed by Air Mauritius, Air Seychelles and RwandAir. FlySafair of South Africa, Egyptair and British/South African-based carrier Fastjet making the top ten African airlines.
The 2021 Skytrax awards covered the period from September 2019 to July 2021 with the results reflecting a mix of normal and pandemic travel.
Overall, Qatar Airways was named the best airline in the world, a title it has won six times since 2001, followed by Singapore Airlines. Japan’s All Nippon Airways came third.
Emirates was fourth followed by Japan Airlines, while Cathay Pacific Airways of Hong Kong was sixth.
“Having gone through one of the most challenging years in aviation history, this award is fitting recognition for all the hard work by the entire Qatar Airways family to take care of our passengers,” said Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Mr Akbar Al Baker during the awards ceremony on September 28.
The Skytrax awards are based on customers’ surveys. Travellers were asked about the performance and service quality of more than 350 global airlines.
