The work of airlines and aviation suppliers over the past 12 months was recognised at an awards ceremony at APEX/ISA Expo in Long Beach, California, where the winners of the Official Airline Ratings, Passenger Choice Awards and APEX/IFSA Awards were announced, as well as the recipients of the APEX Health Safety powered by SimpliFlying certification.
The winners were as follows:
APEX CEO Lifetime Achievement Award
İlker Aycı, group CEO & chairman, Turkish Airlines
Aycı is certainly a rising star, having become chairman of Turkish Airlines in 2015 after serving on its board of directors for less than a year. Under his leadership, Turkish Airlines has grown to serve more countries from a single city than anywhere else in the world. Find out more about why Aycı received the Lifetime Achievement Award HERE.
2022 Official Airline Ratings
For the fourth year running, airline passengers were able to rate their flight experience on a five-star scale through the TripIt by Concur app. Here are the four- and five-star-rated airlines in the Global, Major, Regional and Low-Cost Carrier categories.
The Five-Star winners
Five-star global airlines:
Aeroflot
Aeromexico
Air Canada
American Airlines
Cathay Pacific
China Airlines
Delta Air Lines
El Al
Emirates
Etihad Airways
EVA Air
Japan Airlines (JAL)
KLM
Korean Air
Lufthansa
Qatar Airways
Saudia
Singapore Airlines
SWISS
Turkish Airlines
United Airlines
Virgin Atlantic
Xiamen Airlines
Five-star major airlines:
Air Astana
Air Tahiti Nui
Alaska Airlines
Avianca
Gulf Air
Hawaiian Airlines
JetBlue Airways
Middle East Airlines
Oman Air
Five-Star regional airlines:
JSX
The Four-Star winners
Four-Star global airlines:
Air China
Air France
British Airways
Condor
LATAM Airlines Group
Malaysia Airlines
SAS
TAP Portugal
Four-Star major airlines:
Brussels Airlines
Caribbean Airlines
Fiji Airways
Philippine Airlines
Royal Brunei Airlines
SriLankan Airlines
Four-star regional airlines:
Aeromexico Connect
Porter Airlines
Four-Star low-cost airlines:
Air Arabia
Allegiant Air
Azul
Eurowings
Frontier Airlines
GOL
Norwegian
Scoot
Southwest Airlines
Spirit Airlines
Swoop
WestJet
Passenger Choice Awards
Using the TripIt by Concur app, airline passengers can give feedback on how they feel about their flights, in terms of seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment and inflight wi-fi. The results of these surveys culminate in the winners of the Passenger Choice Awards.
Best Cabin Service
EVA Air
Best Seat Comfort
Qatar Airways
Best Food & Beverage
Qatar Airways
Best Entertainment
Emirates
Best Wi-Fi
Delta Air Lines
APEX/IFSA Awards
A large group of APEX and IFSA members determine the top three finalists in each of the APEX/IFSA Awards categories every year. A panel of industry media then vote on the winners in a final round of judging.
Best Inflight Entertainment Innovation
United Airlines
United Airlines was praised for being the first carrier in North America to install Bluetooth audio in the aircraft cabin as part of its “United Next” customer experience transformation programme. Designed with accessibility in mind like the rest of its IFE offering, the service is currently available across its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet, which has the highest NPS scores across all its different aircraft.
Best Inflight Connectivity Innovation
WestJet
WestJet was the first and largest customer of Panasonic Avionics’ ZeroTouch service, which it uses to manage real-time passenger data, software, media and content updates across its fleet of 100 aircraft. The airline’s previous update process took three weeks, while the new automated process takes five days, saving 500 hours of manpower each month.
Best Airport Innovation
Spirit Airlines
Spirit Airlines designed its self-bag drop off solution together with the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and, in the process, created a new framework that other airlines can use. Payment-enabled, the solution cuts Spirit’s costs while improving the passenger experience.
Best Product or Service
Purell, powered by Gojo Industries
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Delta Air Lines signed a long-term partnership with Gojo Industries to supply a range of Purell sanitising solutions for use in-flight. Under the partnership, Purell introduced hygiene measures onboard its aircraft including an FAA-compliant mounted bottle of hand sanitiser, specially designed single-snap hand sanitising gel pouches, and moisturising hand sanitiser wipes.
Best Marketing Innovation
Spafax
Spafax has worked with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to create a digital service for the airline’s elite members that receive its Priority magazine. Accessed through the SIA app, Spafax provides digital-first content that gives readers the ability to book flights, hotels and tours straight from the online content. It also features innovative content ideas, such as audio snippets from photographers about how they captured a certain shot to illustrate an article.
Best Onboard Amenity (IFSA)
Buzz
Every three months, Buzz creates a new range of children’s amenity kits for Singapore Airlines based on Disney brands including Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King and Marvel. The company’s offering focuses on activities that encourage STEM learning, but has different offerings for children of different ages. The amenities are wrapped in FSC-certified paper printed with soy-based inks, instead of polybags.
Best Cabin Innovation
Airbus
Airbus is bringing its Airspace cabin to narrowbody jets to provide airlines with a consistent look and feel across their cabins. The benefits of Airspace include endless customisation options, 1in of extra shoulder space thanks to a redesigned cabin sidewall, a lighting system with jetlag-reducing effects, integrated window shades offering passengers 10% more of a view, and more.
Best Inflight Food or Beverage (IFSA)
Malaysia Airlines
Malaysia Airlines created its Cool Treats Ice Cream product so that it can serve passengers a popular dessert without having to worry about messy eaters staining the seat covers. Packaged in a wrapper that showcases Malaysia Airlines’ batik motif, the ice cream petit fours are encased in chocolate and can be eaten by hand. Cool Treats have proved so popular that they are now sold on the airline’s website and in retail stores throughout Malaysia.
Newcomer of the year
SpiceJet
SpiceJet created SG Docs, a mobile app for cabin crew that hosts a digital view of documents and manuals, cabin announcements, current cabin defects and various digitised operational forms. The app is designed to function seamlessly whether online or offline.
