Airbus Eclipses Boeing as Best Aircraft at Global Traveler Awards
Erica Berardi December 14, 2015
Global Traveler magazine names Turkish Airlines and the Ritz-Carlton as best-in-class at its annual awards.
Business and luxury voyager magazine Global Traveler (GT) named Turkish Airlines, The Ritz-Carlton and the Airbus A380 as best in class at its fifth annual GT Airline and Hotel of the Year awards.
See a complete list of winners here. In September, GT assembled a committee of business-travel advisors and selected the winners, who, as nominees, submitted financial data, occupancy rates, load factors, on-time figures, safety records and menus, said GT in a press release issued Dec. 1.
Winners are ineligible to participate for three subsequent years; GT judged airlines and hotels that did not submit required information based on independent research.
GT also announced results of the GT Tested Reader Survey, completed by 22,000 GT readers, frequent flyers with an average annual household income of $372,900 and who average nine international and 13 domestic round-trip flights per year. GT readers average 50 nights per year in hotels.
GT readers named the following:
- Best Airline in the World and Best Airline for Business Class: Singapore Airlines
- Best Airline for International First Class and Best Business-Class Seat Design: China Airlines
- Best Flight Airline for New Service Launch and Best Airport Staff/Gate Agents: EVA AIR
- Best Airline in Central/South Asia & India: Air India
- Best Transatlantic Airline: airberlin
- Best Lifestyle Hotel Chain: Andaz
- Best Individual Hotel in the World: The Address Downtown Dubai
- Best MICE City: Seoul
- Best Hotel Rewards Program in the World: IHG Rewards Club
The winners were celebrated on Dec. 8 at a reception in Beverly Hills. GT is a U.S.-based business travel and lifestyle publication with a paid circulation of over 111,000 readers.
[Image via Airbus]
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"Winners are ineligible to participate for three subsequent years" In other words, they've rigged the awards to ensure that the awards rotate around to maximize their ad dollar potential. Some of these awards are, frankly, insane. Air India is the best airline in South Asia & India? airberlin is the best airline Transatlantic? China Airlines has the best Int'l First Class? Finally, choosing an aircraft type as the "best" is just silly. It all depends on what you DO with it. The airframe itself is fundamentally of interest only to the airline bean counters.