LONDON – Australian flag carrier Qantas has fared well in this year’s annual Skytrax Awards, being named Best Airline in Australia/Pacific 2022.
In the main regional category, Air New Zealand took the second place slot, with Fiji Airways taking third position.
Notably, Rex Airlines who have been boldly sounding their own trumpet of late were nowhere to be seen on the Top Five. Rex came in at sixth place, having recently been awarded Airline of the Year in the local Australian Aviation awards.
Qantas 2022 Skytrax awards tally
Despite something of a horror year, Qantas fared well overall in this year’s Skytrax event. Not only did the airline take out the top regional accolade, but it also took out four other honours relating to business class services and catering.
Interestingly, Qantas have been in the wars this week with respect to a domestic catering issue. The airline had made the decision to remove a vegetarian meal option for domestic flights of less than 3.5 hours flight time.
The move was met with an almost instant retaliation from customers, forcing the airline to rustle up a rather hastily prepared vegetarian backflip just three days later. As of yesterday, Qantas issued a statement saying the vegetarian meal option would remain on those flights.
Perhaps the raft of awards which the national flag carrier has just taken out at Skytrax 2022 will serve to wipe at least some of the egg off the airline’s face.
Has anyone seen Rex?
Perhaps the old saying “Pride comes before a fall” applies to Aussie carrier Rex Airlines in this instance. Rex haven’t been backwards in coming forwards to boast their performance levels this year.
Indeed, they have stuck it to Qantas at every turn, in what has been a rather messy equivalent of a street brawl between the competing rivals. Even when accepting the recent Australian Aviation ‘Airline of the Year’ accolade, Rex Airlines had it’s boots on and were happy to plant one on the national flag carrier.
When accepting the award, Chief Operating Officer Neville Howell gave Qantas a quick backhander saying that Rex Airlines ground staff were “fantastic baggage handlers that don’t lose bags.”
Having now missed out on a top place in the 2022 Skytrax awards, Rex Airlines will perhaps have to console themselves with the fact that they did list at 9th place in the “World’s Best Regional Airlines 2022” category.
Their domestic rival – the Qantas subsidiary, Qantaslink – only came in a 19th place in the Regional category.
About the Skytrax Awards
The World Airline Awards began in 1999, when Skytrax launched its first global, annual airline customer satisfaction survey. It is not restricted to member airlines or a pre-selected choice of airline, and any airline in the world can be nominated.
