Brussels Airlines and the 2012 Skytrax World Airline Awards

[shockcooling]

Wooptiedoo!!! SN has made it to the top 10
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Award ... europe.htm

[Flanker]

Out of the 30 or so Western European airlines that were surveyed...

[shockcooling]

I know, it doesn't actually means so much, it's like deciding which bookstore is best on the Meir, just see the fun of it

[Passenger]

All professionals from the aviation, travel and tourism trade know the value of these annual awards. It's indeed correct what Skytrax / Worldairlineawards.com writes about themselves: "...The most prestigious accolades for the world airline industry. Travellers from over 160 countries take part each year in the world’s largest airline passenger satisfaction survey, to decide the award winners. The World Airline Awards™ are the global benchmark of airline excellence..."

Their most prestigious award : overall "Airline of the Year" - 2012:
1. Qatar Airways
2. Asiana Airlines
3. Singapore Airlines
4. Cathay Pacific Airways
5. ANA All Nippon Airways
6. Etihad Airways
7. Turkish Airlines
8. Emirates
9. Thai Airways
10. Malaysia Airlines

All results:
http://www.worldairlineawards.com

And for Belgian luchtzak.be members: Awards for Western Europe:
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Award ... europe.htm

[andorra-airport]

It's indeed correct what Skytrax / Worldairlineawards.com writes about themselves: "...The most prestigious accolades for the world airline industry. Travellers from over 160 countries take part each year in the world’s largest airline passenger satisfaction survey, to decide the award winners. The World Airline Awards™ are the global benchmark of airline excellence..."

Not everybody agrees with that one. I read so often that Skytrax is very selective, biased , a farce, and even some call it a scam!

If you have time, read this: http://www.businesstraveller.com/discus ... ts-reviews

[Passenger]

It's indeed correct what Skytrax / Worldairlineawards.com writes about themselves: "...The most prestigious accolades for the world airline industry. Travellers from over 160 countries take part each year in the world’s largest airline passenger satisfaction survey, to decide the award winners. The World Airline Awards™ are the global benchmark of airline excellence..."

Not everybody agrees with that one. I read so often that Skytrax is very selective, biased, a farce, and even some call it a scam!

If you have time, read this: http://www.businesstraveller.com/discus ... ts-reviews

Is a magazine that organizes annual Airline Awards itself reliable as source for comments about a competitor? I don't think so. I wonder how many of those posts on that Business Traveller's forum are original, and not posted by BT staff.

Fact is that the Skytrax World Airline Awards get international recognition, example
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/ ... rds-956445

[sn26567]

I do believe that there is indeed some kind of bias in that kind of ranking, a bias due to the number of passengers that fly any given airline. The winner will always be a large airline with a consistently "good" quality (I did not say "excellent").

A small airline, even with a superb recod, will never be able to win the competition because it will not have enough passengers voting for it. Unless, of course, if there is some kind of system taking into account the number of voters compared to the total number of passengers.

I am not sure what this sentence means in the methodology of Skytrax: "Data weighting was applied to provide nomination equity when evaluating airlines of different size. Data weighting used passenger numbers for airlines featured in the Survey." I undertstand the words, but I would like to know how thiw dara weighting is actually implemented.

[Yuri166]

Actually...
If you take into account that BMI was probably judged prior to its sale, half this top 10 is Lufthansa... They must be doing something right...

[airazurxtror]

... and easyJet is 6th - not bad for an LCC !

[cnc]

what a list...
LX and BA are imo still far above LH and how the hell did U2 end up on place 6?

[FLYAIR10]

Can't believe a LCC is 6th in the ranking
Sorry but this listing is just crap or manipulated..
Maybe a yearly Luchtzak ranking could be started up instead.(and that one will probably be biased aswell)
Grtz

[Flanker]

Easyjet does offer quite a nice product despite being a LCC.
My personal ranking is:

1 BA -Best longhaul product, best lounges
2 AB -Best shorthaul product
3 FR-Vast offering of destinations, good value, on-time performance, safety, but image and attitude
4 TP -Overall good performance
5 AZ -A reborn AZ, nice product
6 VS -Still the next best thing to fly longhaul on, fleet is tired.
7 LX -OK longhaul product, but shorthaul is substandard.
8 U2 -Good product, good value for money, network and operations are messy
9 AF -Good network, good product on some aircraft, but less than good on all the rest
10 LH -Good network, but overcrowded lounges, less than comfortable hard products, pricing

[RoMax]

When looking at the customer reviews of SN on the Skytrax website, it seems the average of the reviews in the latest months are quite positive. Especially the long haul product is being praised:

Out of the Netherlands: 9/10

Brussels - Douala in Business Class. Flights on-time, service was immaculate, food not bad. Same seats as Swiss, but for whatever reason a lot more comfortable. Boarding very organised. Had the same crew on the in and out flights. Apart from the Douala Brussels Airlines lounge, all was very good.

Out of Switserland: 10/10

C-Class BRU - ROB in newly revamped cabin. Lest nothing to be desired. Great entertainment, great food/wine and above all a very friendly cabin staff. Looking forward to my next trip!

Out of Germany: 8/10

TXL-BRU-BJL-BRU-TXL. European flights in b.flex, intercontinental ones in business class. Since I last flew Brussels Airlines in b.flex, there has been a significant decline in service. A year ago, you received a little tray with a salad, a cold meal and hot bread rolls. Now, it is down to a sandwich or a croissant depending on the time of day. European business class seemed to be down-graded, too. In business, you get now what you used to get in b.flex. Intercontinental flights in business class, however, were quite a different matter. On the way out to Banjul, the plane was equipped with the new business-class seats. In one row the seating arrangement is 1-2-1, in the next 2-1-2. Beds are fully lie-flat beds now. Meals were of an excellent quality for airline food, and flight attendants were attentive and constantly refilled your glasses. On the return to Brussels, the cabin layout in business class was the old 2-2-2 seating, so no lie-flat beds, which was a pity as it was a night flight departing at 22.45 local time. Service was a bit rushed, but then everyone was eager to get at least a couple of hours of sleep before breakfast was served at 5.45 CET.

Tough the reviews about the short haul network are very diverse, some are good, some are mediocre, some are realy bad like this one:
1/10

Round-trip Brussels to Venice. Boeing 737. Economy Class. From Brussels to Venice: 45 minutes late. No explanations or apologies issued. Last minute gate change, with little announcement. Service on board, though polite, is very meagre. From Venice to Brussels: 1hr 30 minutes late. No explanation issued. 2 gate changes. Seating on board is very cramped. Quality of seats mediocre. All in all, I do not recommend this unreliable airline.

But it can always be better: 8/10

Brussels-Bilbao-Brussels on Avro 100 in b flex (economy plus service). Cabin crew on the outbound flight were great, very warm and service was of a near business level (excellent food, pre flight drink, multiple drinks, excellent for such a short flight). Inbound flight crew seemed more hurried and less interested but service was still superior to many other airlines. The airplane was getting a bit old but had a very comfortable 2-3 set up.

These are all reviews of May-July 2012. The long haul service seems to be above European standard, tough short/mid haul is lacking behind. The service is not great (but great service on intra-EU routes seems to be of a past century...) and not consistent. Tough based on these latest reviews it seems no suprise that they are in the top-10 in western Europe. And they may und up even higher next year as these awards were not yet fully influenced by the introduction of the upgraded long haul product and the most uncomfortable aircraft of the fleet will be completely gone (737's).

[Inquirer]

Really no surprise to see Lufthansa and its babies taking half the positions in the top 10 of EU airlines: I fly at least 150 flights a year for business trips, of which at least 2/3rds on STAR alliance airlines and believe me: it's hard to beat Lufthansa and its daughters; somehow there's just nobody out there that can match their network and the numerous connectivity options they have at their disposal from having so many different hubs centrally located in the EU: FRA/MUC/ZRH/BRU/VIE and DUS even...

Question to the mods: why not split off this discussion and have it under a different topic?
It has very little to do with the current one, in my view.

[sn26567]

Question to the mods: why not split off this discussion and have it under a different topic?
It has very little to do with the current one, in my view.

Good idea: merged with the existing Skytrax World Airline Awards thread!

[b-west]

I've flown 6 of the 10 airlines out of the top 10. Now, I don't know why everybody is raving about Emirates. Or maybe I was just a bit unlucky, but I didn't find the business class experience that exceptional. Etihad on the other hand.

SQ, CX, TK, TG I've only flown in Y. SQ is the winner there for me, with TK on a well deserved second place.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to longhaul, SN is top class in business and very good in economy. Especially with the new seats.

[RoMax]

Didn't see it mentioned here so, SN's place on the worldwide list is 63, just behind Air Nostrum and just in front of United Airlines.

[Inquirer]

Question to the mods: why not split off this discussion and have it under a different topic?
It has very little to do with the current one, in my view.

Good idea: merged with the existing Skytrax World Airline Awards thread!

Thank you!

When you fly them at least twice a week like I do, you can't but notice Brussels Airlines have been investing some serious money in their fleet, their interiors and the product as of lately.

I bet that when the 737s will be gone at the end of this year, they'll be able to offer a much more consistent product which should then also be reflected in a more positive general appraisal as from next year on, because indeed their 737s are not worthy of the airline.

Wonder if they'll be rated 4 stars again then?

[RoMax]

Another very positive review about the JFK flights was published on Skytrax:

Brussels to new York JFK on July 8. Great inflight service, with an attentive cabin crew and tasty catering, nicely refurbished A330-300 with good legroom and excellent inflight entertainment system. Frequent flyer status recognition was also there.

Flown in economy
Rating: 10/10
Value for money, seat comfort, catering, staff service and entertainment all got 5 stars.

Based on the reviews of the current long haul product it seems SN do deserve the 4-star rating again. Tough I don't know if they deserve it for the mid/short haul network and ground service.