Air Asia named world's best budget airline at Skytrax awards

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SME Times News Bureau | 21 Jun, 2017
Air Asia, and Air Asia X won four awards at the Skytrax Awards here at the Paris airshow on Tuesday, including that for world's best low-cost airline.

At the awards, dubbed as the "Oscars of the Aviation Industry", AirAsia X scooped up the World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Cabin and World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Seat awards for the fifth straight year.

Air Asia won awards for being the Best Low-Cost Airline in Asia for a month year in the row, and also as World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Cabin 2017 at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards in the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget Airport here.

AirAsia X Chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz accepted the awards for AirAsia X.

Also present were AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and AirAsia X Thailand CEO Nadda Buranasiri.

On behalf of Air Asia, Group Cabin Crew Head Suhaila Hassan, who has been with the company for 20 years, accepted the award, flanked by AirAsia ambassador David Foster and Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos.

AirAsia and AirAsia X have won a combined 25 Skytrax World Airline Awards since the awards were introduced in 2001.

Fernandes said: "Today, Asean has created a world record. We are now nine times world champion. To put it into perspective, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup five times, Michael Jordan was NBA champion six times and Michael Phelps holds the record for most first place finishes at a single Olympics with eight gold medals.

"We take the world champion title seriously and we will strive to continue to improve for both our guests and shareholders. Over the last 15 years we have created a great brand and over the next 15, we want to move towards One AirAsia, a truly Asean community airline. We also want to recreate ourselves as a digital airline and use technology to drive more value."

Hassan said, "It's been an incredible 20 years, being part of AirAsia's journey from a domestic Malaysian airline to the world's best."

The Skytrax Awards are the global benchmark of airline excellence with over 19.9 million customer surveys completed worldwide by more than 105 nationalities, measuring standards across 49 key performance indicators of an airline's frontline products and services.