I can’t say that I generally respect Skytrax much, but the company has just published its annual airline awards, which does tend to get a lot of media attention. So I’d like to take a look at that, as the incumbent airline didn’t win.
Singapore Airlines ranked best airline in the world
Skytrax has published the results of its annual World Airline Awards. While there are awards across a variety of areas, the most coveted is of course getting the title of “World’s Best Airline.” For 2026, here are the top 10 winners:
- Singapore Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- All Nippon Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- Emirates
- Air France
- Hainan Airlines
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
For those curious, here’s how this compared to the 2025 results:
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates
- All Nippon Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- Korean Air
- Air France
- Japan Airlines
- Hainan Airlines
As you can see, the top 10 airlines remained the same compared to last year, it’s just the order that has changed.
Lastly, for those curious about which airline won the first place spot for the last 15 years (the awards didn’t take place in 2020, due to the pandemic):
- Qatar Airways won the award nine times, in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025
- Singapore Airlines won the award three times, in 2018, 2023, and 2026
- Emirates won the award two times, in 2013 and 2016
- Cathay Pacific won the award one time, in 2014
The methodology used for the Skytrax World Airline Awards
To Skytrax’s credit, the World Airline Awards have some legitimacy, in the sense that the company is relatively transparent about how this is awarded. This isn’t based on the choice of some expert panel, or anything. Instead, the public can vote on various aspects of their experience when flying with airlines around the world, and that’s how the results are determined.
So over the course of the past 12 months, people have been able to vote on which airline they think is best, and that’s what determines the winners. The company does note that it applies weighting for airline sizes, to provide equity when evaluating carriers of different sizes, by using passenger numbers.
With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see that Singapore Airlines beat Qatar Airways this year. Both are world class airlines, but with the ongoing war and impact that had on operations earlier this year, it’s logical this had an impact on passenger perception.
This award concept is all a lot more transparent than the system by which Skytrax awards its star ratings, especially given that the company also does consulting for airlines. Just keep in mind how in 2017, Lufthansa was awarded a Skytrax 5-star rating, and that was given less than two weeks after the airline unveiled its Allegris business class (lol at the past decade). This is when any of Skytrax’s remaining credibility went out the window.
At the time, Skytrax’s CEO explained the following was a key reason that Lufthansa received a 5-star rating:
“A key factor behind Lufthansa gaining 5-Star Airline Certification is the recently announced new business class cabin and seat that will be delivered when the airline receives their first Boeing 777X aircraft.”
Yet at the time, Skytrax also stated that the following was how star ratings were determined:
“The consistency of an airline’s Product and service is a critical issue within their final Rating, and detailed focus is applied to the delivered realities. Particular attention is applied to the quality and consistency of cabin seating, IFE systems and associated cabin products. An airline offering less than 80% fleet-wide product consistency may find these conditions will have a negative impact on their final quality rating determination.”
So consistency is important, and any airline with less than 80% consistency could find that that those conditions lead to a negative impact on the final score. But Lufthansa got a 5-star rating, with one consideration being a product it hadn’t actually yet introduced?
Bottom line
Skytrax’s World Airline Awards have just been published for 2026, and Singapore Airlines has stolen the top spot from Qatar Airways. While these are the two most awarded airlines, Qatar Airways has won the award more often than Singapore Airlines has.
Unlike the Skytrax star rating system, the World Airline Awards are actually based on passenger surveys, so it’s not surprising to me that Qatar Airways may have had a rougher than usual year, given operational irregularities.
What do you make of the World Airline Awards and the results this year?
Only one North American airline in the Top 20, and that's Air Canada. I can feel a disturbance in the Force.