Best Low Cost Awards 2006

London - 19th June 2006

AIR BERLIN has been named as the world's Best low-cost airline in the 2006 World Airline Awards announced today, also picking up the award as Europe's Best low-cost airline. Air Berlin pushed North American carrier, jetBlue Airways into 2nd place - jetBlue having been a previous three-times winner of this title.

Two days after easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou became "Sir Stelios", his airline was announced as the 3rd best low-cost carrier worldwide, and 2nd best in Europe.

BEST LOW COST AIRLINES - 2006 results

	WORLDWIDE
	Rank	Airline	2005
	1	Air Berlin	2nd
	2	jetBlue Airways	1st
	3	easyJet	5th

	EUROPE
	Rank	Airline	2005
	1	Air Berlin	1st
	2	easyJet	2nd
	3	Vueling	--

Best Cabin Crew Awards 2006

Thai Airways International has been named as the winner 2006 World Airline Award for the Best Cabin Staff - up from 2nd position in 2005. Qatar Airways continues its upward move, taking 2nd place in the Best Cabin Staff awards, an improvement of 3 positions on its year-earlier ranking. Malaysia Airlines maintains its 2005 ranking as 3rd in the world, with ANA another climber into the top 5 worldwide (from 9th in 2005) - Singapore Airlines in a creditable 5th position.

	BEST CABIN STAFF
	Rank	Airline	2005
	1	Thai Airways	2nd
	2	Qatar Airways	5th
	3	Malaysia Airlines	3rd
	4	A N A	9th
	5	Singapore Airlines	4th
	© Skytrax Research 2006

Commenting on the results, Skytrax said ..... "cabin staff play a pivotal role, not just in ensuring the safety and well-being of passengers, but also projecting the whole corporate image that an airline is seeking to achieve. It is often the standard of cabin staff service that will make or break a travel experience for many customers, and our Survey is structured in such a way as to enable differentiation between what we regard as 'hard' and 'soft' service elements. The hard service factors are those that relate mostly to the designated service duties - be it safety, catering etc. Soft service is something that can be said to reflect the individual character of either an airline or the country it represents - that special smile, genuine service interest, staff friendliness, staff enthusiasm etc. These are areas where some airlines clearly excel, and achieve great customer loyalty through their ability to deliver this in a consistent manner.

World Airline Awards 2006

THE WORLD'S TOP AIRLINES - 2006

	AIRLINE OF THE YEAR 2006
	Rank	Airline	2005
	1	British Airways	5th
	2	Qantas Airways	2nd
	3	Cathay Pacific	1st
	4	Thai Airways	7th
	5	Emirates	3rd
	6	Qatar Airways	8th
	7	Singapore Airlines	4th
	8	A N A	10th
	9	Malaysia Airlines	6th
	10	China Airlines	16th
	© Skytrax Research

Commenting on the World Airline Awards, Edward Plaisted (CEO, Skytrax) said

......"the World Airline Survey is recognised across the globe as the leading independent monitor of passenger opinions - the survey process offering the only truly worldwide project, with open and uninfluenced results. The final total of 13.61 million eligible, completed survey interviews was beyond our expectations, and we extend a very big thank you to all those customers who participated."