SkyTrax is a United Kingdom–based organization that runs an airline and airport review program. Every year, they release a ranking of their top carriers in a multitude of different categories. This is from their 2025 ranking:
The Best Overall Airlines
1. Qatar Airlines (Qatar)
2. Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
3. Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong)
Best Cabin Crew
1. Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
2. All Nippon Airways (Japan)
3. Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong)
Best Long Haul Low-Cost Airline
1. Scoot Airlines (Singapore)
2. AirAsia (Malaysia)
3. IndiGo (India)
Best Business Class
1. Qatar Airlines (Qatar)
2. Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
3. All Nippon Airways (Japan)
My Thoughts
It’s pretty well known that Qatar and Singapore are extremely high quality carriers. It is a little surprising that Emirates didn’t crack the top three on any of these categories, given the fact that their whole reputation is built around an elevated product, but it was never very far down the rankings. It did not surprise me that no US airlines made it on the list - the closest they got was Delta Air Lines’s #14 ranking on Best Business Class, Delta Air Lines’s #22 ranking in Best Overall, and Allegiant’s #15 spot in Best Low Cost Carriers.
W’s for Cathay Pacific getting 3rd place this year! Cathay has bounced back quite well from the pandemic. Looking forward to flying with them again this year after more than 6 years of not flying them.
I think SkyTrax is a sort of “pay to play” system. It’s kind of like the Michelin Star program - a restaurant or tourism board has to be a lot of money for the restaurant to even be considered for a Star, so it’s not really an objective analysis.
Yeah like above just rubbish. Indigo’s short haul product might be debatable but their long haul is unpolished and just completely not deserving.
It’s things like this that expose just how untrustworthy skytrax is. Indigo has like 2-3 long haul routes. They are barely a LHLC carrier but they are trying to enter the space. Seems “convenient” that skytrax has picked up on this at such a perfect time for Indigo.
Based on their reviews, it seems Scoot’s long haul product is terrible, although their short haul product is alright, based off of when I flew with them to Thailand a few years back.
um well, the top 3 don’t surprise me, but for me, Hainan getting 10th place was unexpected. Pretty interesting. I hoped JAL could make it higher than 9th place…
That was my initial reaction as well - they definitely surpass the likes of Air France and Turkish Airlines in terms of cabin crew service quality and overall seat comfort (JAL leads the industry with some of the widest seats on Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft; the new business class on the A350-1000 is nothing short of stunning.)
But then again, Skytrax rankings are not objective by any means - so I wouldn’t think too much of them from a passenger’s point of view.
Likely because an airline’s overall quality correlates strongly to the level of service offered in economy class. (Yes, I am aware that a separate ranking exists, but I don’t find that to be particularly more reliable than any other Skytrax metric.)
I am not one to consider Skytrax ratings to be particularly reliable indicators of an airline’s actual quality past the top three or so; however it would be rather difficult for a “leading” airline so to say, e.g. Singapore or Qatar, to gain the top spots if the quality of service they deliver is not largely consistent across all classes. Similarly, an airline that generally gets a reputation for being mediocre or below average (not naming names here, you know who you are); don’t earn that based off a singular class of service alone - it’s their overall image and quality of service that affect their standing within their industry which to a large extent is affected by how they treat their economy class passengers.
Very interesting, exciting and unexpected to see Hainan Airlines in 10th place for overall best airline. I do have one problem which is that they have labeled Air Canada Rouge as the 3rd best low coast long haul carrier even tho Air Canada Rouge hasn’t flown long hauls since 2020 when they retired their B767’s
Yeah, I’m also disappointed that JAL was rated quite low. I flew on their B77W a few months ago to LAX and their quality and service was top notch in my opinion. I haven’t flown internationally with ANA in years but I’m sort of curious how their services have changed since then.
And also sorry, I was on vacation and flew with um.. Korean Air
Not surprising lol.
This is sort of my personal bias but I had a horrible experience with American Airlines as they destroyed the handle of my camera tripod..
