Skytrax

Services

Skytrax conducts research for commercial airlines, as well as taking surveys from international travellers, to rate cabin staff, airports, airlines, airline lounges, in-flight entertainment, on-board catering, and several other elements of air travel. Apart from these evaluations, Skytrax has an airline forum where passengers give potential passengers insights and opinions about airlines. The website also hosts flight reviews, flight checks, and satisfaction surveys. Skytrax holds an annual World Airline Awards and World Airport Awards, as well as ranking airlines and airports.

Skytrax rates individual airlines between one and five stars; they describe a five-star rating as recognising "airlines providing very high standards of Airport and Onboard Product" and "consistent and high standards of staff service across both the airport and onboard service environments". The ten airlines they deem to be five-star rated are:

• Japan All Nippon Airways
• South Korea Asiana Airlines
• Hong Kong Cathay Pacific*
• Taiwan EVA Air
• China Hainan Airlines
• Japan Japan Airlines*
• South Korea Korean Air*
• Qatar Qatar Airways*
• Singapore Singapore Airlines*
• Taiwan Starlux Airlines

Airlines with an asterisk ()* denote flag carriers.

Investigations

In 2012, the online investigations company KwikChex filed five complaints with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) related to statements on the Skytrax website describing the volume and reliability of their reviews as well as the official status and update frequency of their ratings. The ASA ruled that there was no evidence that Skytrax had followed the robust procedures it claimed it had in place to check that all reviews were genuine. Although Skytrax argued that every review underwent a four-stage authentication process, it said it was unable to provide proof it had followed its own procedures, since customer emails were deleted 24 hours after a review was submitted. In 2012, the authority upheld all five complaints and Skytrax agreed to modify some promotional wording.

References

References

1. "SKYTRAX AVIATION LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
2. "Careers with us {{!}} Skytrax".
3. "AirlineQuality.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools".
4. Mario Kossmann. (2006). "Delivering Excellent Service Quality in Aviation". Ashgate Publishing.
5. "Skytrax rates the world's best".
6. [http://www.worldairlineawards.com/ World Airline Awards]
7. [http://www.worldairportawards.com/ World Airport Awards]
8. "The World's 5-Star Airlines".
9. (8 November 2012). "Skytrax airline quality claims under scrutiny". Travelmole.
10. "ASA Ruling on Skytrax Research". asa.org.uk.
11. Engel Schmidl. (13 November 2012). "Advertising Standards Authority calls out Tripadvisor and Skytrax for fake user reviews". SmartCompany.com.au.