Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- None of the African carriers has appeared in the top 10 best airlines globally in the ranking by Ratings.com.
- This means the airlines need to invest heavily on their lounges, improve on the ambience of their first class and invest heavily on inflight entertainment, which are some of the key parameters used to determine the ranking.
African airlines have once again missed out on the world’s best
carriers in the latest global rankings, with top slots taken by Middle
Eastern, Asian and European airlines.
None of the
African carriers has appeared in the top 10 best airlines globally in
the ranking by Ratings.com. This means the airlines need to invest
heavily on their lounges, improve on the ambience of their first class
and invest heavily on inflight entertainment, which are some of the key
parameters used to determine the ranking.
The Airline
Excellence Awards cover the best in the aviation world, recognising the
classiest airline lounges, finest first class cabins and most exciting
in-flight entertainment.
Air New Zealand was nominated
as the Airline of the year for 2020 AirlineRatings.com, rebounding to
the top position after being toppled by Singapore last year. The carrier
has, however, held position one six times.
"In our
analysis Air New Zealand came out number one in most of our audit
criteria, which is an outstanding performance when it is up against
carriers with more resources and scale," Geoffrey Thomas,
editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com is quoted.
AirlineRatings.com says the carrier's record-breaking
performance and inflight innovations coupled with its safety record and
staff motivation placed it at number one.
The second
position was taken by Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways (third)
Qantas (fourth) and Cathay Pacific at position five.
A
lot of African airlines are still struggling with high cost of operation
and they may not have the luxury of investing a lot on some of the
things the rating agency looks at, making it difficult for them to
appear among the top performers.
Kenya Airways ratings on safety has all the seven stars implying high standards on this score.
KQ
ranking was boosted last year after the airline received a nod from the
Federal Aviation Administration to fly to the US airspace.
The
safety ratings of an airline is also placed high if the carrier has not
recorded fatal accident in the last 10 years. KQ has in the last decade
recorded an accident-free history.
“One star is
deleted from the rating if the airline has had any fatalities to
passengers or crew in the prior 10 years. It is our view — and that of
our safety consultants — that it takes up to 10 years for an airline’s
safety culture to change after an accident,” says the agency.
“It
can also take up to 10 years for the airline to replace older aircraft
types, upgrade avionics or systems that may have contributed to the
accident.”
AirlineRatings.com's awards are judged by
seven experienced editors using international industry and government
safety audits, alongside 12 key criteria including fleet age, passenger
reviews, investment ratings, staff relations, product offerings and
profitability.
Ethiopian
Airlines (ET) has previously been rated as the leading carrier in the
region owing to its good financial performance on the continent. The
airline also has one of the youngest fleet regionally.
On
the safety ratings, ET has lost four of the seven stars as a result of
the recent accident involving the carrier’s flight ET 302 from Addis
Ababa to Nairobi, which killed all the passengers and the crew on board
in March this year.
The accident was blamed on a
malfunctioning software that made it difficult for the pilots to control
the aircraft following a stall warning.
Boeing has so far announced a software fix intended to make it less aggressive and easier to control.
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