Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines and Adria among Europe’s best

Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways have been named among Eastern Europe's best carriers at the annual World Airline Awards, hosted by Skytrax, during the Farnborough Air Show this week. For only the third time, three of the largest carriers from the former Yugoslavia have been featured among the best in the category, while Air Serbia was named among the continent's top regional airlines. Unlike last year, it did not place in the world's best regional airlines. However, the Serbian carrier was voted Eastern Europe’s fourth best, Croatia Airlines came sixth, while Adria positioned itself as the ninth best. As a result, all three retained their positions from last year. The trio managed to outperform the likes of Russia’s Ural Airlines and Pobeda, as well as Czech Airlines. Aeroflot was awarded the title of Eastern Europe’s best carrier for a fourth year running, followed by LOT Polish Airlines and S7 Airlines. Air Serbia was trailed by Wizz Air.

Air Serbia was also named among the top ten best regional airlines in Europe, with Adria missing out compared to last year. According to Skytrax, the category is the most important global quality distinction for airlines. For these World Airline Awards, regional airlines were defined as full service / hybrid carriers that primarily operate domestic or international flights up to approximately six hours. Whilst some regional airlines may operate a small number of longer flights, the core market for this airline classification are short / medium haul routes where customer product and service expectations are different to long haul routes. Air Serbia settled for seventh place, down from fifth in 2017, while Adria, which came ninth last year, failed to make the list this time around. Ultimately, Aegean Airlines was named the best regional carrier, followed by Air Dolomiti, Air Malta and Air Nostrum. Air Serbia, which last year ranked as the twentieth best regional airline in the world, did not make it into the top twenty this time around. None of the carriers from the former Yugoslavia were ranked among the world’s top 100 airlines. Croatia Airlines, which came 99th in 2014, failed to make the list this year. Montenegro Airlines is the only carrier from the former Yugoslavia not to have been featured in any of the several dozen categories.

The World Airline Awards, described as "the Oscars of the aviation industry", are the most coveted quality accolades for the world airline industry and a global benchmark of airline excellence handed out based on passenger experience. The survey operated online between August 2017 and May 2018, with 20.4 million eligible customer surveys completed, across a range of topics, resulting in the awards for airline of the year, together with regional and best airline awards. All entries are screened to identify each IP / user information, with duplicate or ineligible entries deleted. The awards are said to be 100% independent with no payment by any airline or other outside organisation for any aspect of the customer survey or awards presentation event. Over 100 different nationalities participated in the customer satisfaction survey, which covered 335 airlines, from largest international airlines to smaller domestic carriers. The surveys measure standards across 49 key performance indicators of airline front-line product and service. The survey customer voting processes and Airline Awards results analysis were independently assessed in detail by the UK Advertising Standards Authority.

Overall, Lufthansa was named as Europe’s best carrier. Star Alliance, of which both Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways are members of, was awarded for the best alliance in the aviation industry for a second year running. Singapore Airlines was named the world’s best airline, taking the title over from last year’s victor Qatar Airways. China Southern Airlines was the industry's most improved, while Air Asia was awarded the world's best low cost airline. This year marked the seventh time airlines from the EX-YU region made it into the awards list and the second time a carrier from the region was featured in three categories. Earlier this year, Skytrax named the world’s best airports, with Belgrade and Skopje ranking sixth and tenth in Eastern Europe respectively.