The best airlines [Par Jean-Louis Baroux]

As every year, the ranking of the best companies in the world carried out by the Skytrax organization based in London is scrutinized with attention. It must be said that this rating is not contested by anyone and that it has been refined over time, since it began in 1999, now a quarter of a century ago. This is more than enough to ensure its credibility. It remains to draw some lessons from it

First of all, the supremacy of the Gulf companies

to which we can add Turkish Airlines whose base in Istanbul is in the same geographical area. Well, this zone which only includes around twenty regular companies out of the 1200 registered in the world, achieves the performance of placing 3 in the first ten places and 5 in the Top 20. We can also notice the great stability in this ranking since we find the same in 2023. Let us pay tribute to Qatar Airways, Emirates and Turkish Airlines, the latter having made prodigious progress in the last 10 years.

American companies shine in their ranking

American companies, yet the giants of air transport, are conspicuous by their absence. No carrier appears in the top 20 and only 3 emerge in the list of 50, the first Delta Air Lines pointing to the modest 21st place. We have to wait for the 100 nominees to find 14 carriers registered in the United States and Canada. This proves that it is not because a company is big that it is beautiful and attractive. Of course, the American domestic market is undoubtedly less demanding than that of other continents, but it is still surprising that the mega carriers of the United States still manage to impose themselves in the international competition when their quality of service leaves so much to be desired.

Asian companies in pole position

The Asian continent takes the lion’s share of this ranking. It represents half of the top 10 companies and almost as many of the top 50: 24 out of 50. On closer inspection, the carriers of this immense continent have imposed a level of quality much higher than that of other parts of the world, but they are also those who will drive the growth of future air transport if we are to believe the enormous order books they hold with the two major global manufacturers. For the moment, the States do not seem very concerned by the search for carbon neutrality, they are rather in the position of using this mode of transport to strengthen their economic growth.

“Cost killers” have dragged European companies down

European companies are gradually regaining ground. It must be said that they had fallen very low under the governance of the famous “cost killers” and “Yield Management.” Gradually we see them returning to places they should never have left. Let us welcome the arrival of Air France for the second consecutive year and of Swiss International Airlines in the 10 best companies. The Europeans managed to place 6 carriers in the Top 20 with the progress of British Airways and Lufthansa. This proves that when Europeans want to make a quality product, they quickly reach the top of the rankings. They will have had to go very low before returning to the level they had in the 1970s. We can only encourage them to continue on the same path.

Africa and Latin America lagging behind

Two continents are lagging behind. Latin America only appears in the second part of the Top 50 with LATAM’s 43rd position and only 5 carriers are in the top 100 worldwide. There is still much to be done in this area for which air transport is so vital. The same can also be said of Africa which only places Ethiopian Airlines in the top 50 carriers in 36th place and only 7 companies in the top 100 including Royal Air Maroc in 55th place.

We can criticize this type of ranking at will, which necessarily retains a certain subjectivity even if it is built on a large number of criteria. It remains nonetheless that it represents a great interest not only for the well-rated companies or those which gain places in the list, but also for the customers for whom it remains a criterion of choice, even if it is not the only one. And then it encourages the carriers to continue their efforts to improve and, if only for that, the Skytrax ranking is very useful for air transport.

Par Jean-Louis BarouxColumnist