Paul Charles, Chief Executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency talked to CGTN Europe on the highlights of world’s best airlines in 2024.
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00:00Always a been voted the world's best airline, the company edged out last year's winner, Singapore Airlines, to claim top spot for the eighth time at the World Airline Awards.
00:10Emirates, Anaheim, Nippon and Cathay Pacific all made the top five.
00:15The rankings were determined by a worldwide satisfaction survey of passengers from more than a hundred countries.
00:21Let's talk now to Paul Charles, the chief executive of the travel consultancy, the PC Agency.
00:27Paul, good to see you. I'm always pleasantly surprised when an airline doesn't lose my luggage.
00:32What were the key factors that led to Qatar being selected as the best, given there were 350 rivals?
00:40Yes, this is the Oscars of the airline world and essentially the Skytrax Awards are picking out those that really are at the top of their game.
00:50Qatar Airways, as you say, eighth time it's been a winner. It was second last year. It's come up trumps again.
00:58And thousands of people who take part in the vote essentially for Skytrax are saying that they've got what it takes,
01:05that they are the ones who time and time again deliver the best quality, the highest standards and deserve to be number one.
01:14With strong competitors like Singapore and Emirates consistently ranking so high, how does Qatar maintain its competitive edge?
01:23Yes, I think Singapore Airlines, who were first last year, will be a little bit miffed, actually, that they haven't been able to hold on to this.
01:30But Qatar Airways have been working extremely hard, especially since the pandemic, at ensuring they are putting enormous investment into the quality of service on board.
01:42So are Singapore Airlines, but Qatar Airways have done a lot recently, such as ensuring their food menus are the best you can get in the air,
01:50that their aircraft are the newest you can get, especially the A350s, the airbuses they're flying.
01:56And also, I think one of the reasons that they've won again is the fact that they employ something like 70 different nationalities of cabin crew.
02:07And to be able to bring those together to create a united and cohesive culture among 75 different nationalities on board is really impressive.
02:18And so I think they can truly take the crown of being a global carrier.
02:22It's textbook example, though, of excellence and management, isn't it?
02:26I mean, Qatar has this enormous global network. We're not just talking about half a dozen lines here. It's a global network.
02:34I mean, how does an airline manage to maintain such excellent service across all its routes?
02:42They fly, indeed, to over 170 different destinations. That is a huge network to keep your standards up on, to keep flying high.
02:52They've always had really good senior management.
02:56They, of course, had a change of chief executive last year when Akbar al-Bakr stepped down, and so they've had a change.
03:05But he's always led a very strong leadership team of pushing the highest standards.
03:10And I think the award today is the culmination of those hard years of work in ensuring that they just deliver the best training.
03:19And it's a key hallmark of Qatar Airways. Their training standards are really high.
03:24They've invested huge amounts of money in that training and, of course, in the aircraft itself.
03:29And everything seems to come together.
03:31And when you're a passenger, whether you're flying business or leisure, you expect the highest standards these days.
03:37And Qatar Airways keep delivering in spades.
03:40It's Asian and Middle Eastern airlines that consistently collect the top prize.
03:47Why is that? And what are the European and American airlines perhaps getting wrong?
03:55It's a really good question. I think a lot of it is down to the sheer DNA of many of the people who work in Asian carriers.
04:05They're often from the region. They've been trained well.
04:11They have in their DNA a sense of wanting to deliver the best service.
04:15They are naturals at hospitality and quality hospitality.
04:19And I think in Europe and the U.S., that simply isn't generally the case.
04:24You have to be trained much harder to deliver the highest of standards.
04:28It's not in the DNA.
04:30And so American and European carriers, whilst in some cases deliver exceptional standards of service,
04:37simply don't have it across the board in their service quality on board,
04:42whereas Asian carriers have for many decades delivered high-quality service.
04:48And that really shines through in these awards.
04:50Paul, good to see you. Thanks for your time.
04:52Paul Charles, chief executive of the travel consultancy, the PC Agency.