Rudi

a SWISS only ranking of airlines: long-haule-flights
(Publitest Zurich, july-99, sample: 1'000 frequent-swiss-flyers, published in Bilanz aug-99)

overall-ranking (6=very good, 1= very bad)
1) Singapore 5,08 (best in service, seat-comfort)
2) Austrian 4,91
3) Swissair 4,90 (best in safety)
4) Cathay Pacific 4,89
5) Crossair 4,83 (best in check-in)
6) Qantas 4,75 (best in punctuality)
7) Air New Zealand 4,74
8) Malaysia Airlines 4,73
9) Air Canada 4,66 (best N-American carrier)
10) British Airways 4,60
11) Thai 4,51
12) Finnair 4,50
13) Japan Airlines 4,47
14) Lufthansa 4,47
15) KLM 4,34
16) Sabena 4,26
17) Delta 4,25 (best US-carrier)
18) United 4,19
19) TAP Air Portugal 4,18
20) American Airlines 4,18
21) Alitalia 4,10
22) Air France 4,07
23) Continental 3,81
24) Iberia 3,68
25) Northwest 3,63
AVERAGE 4,50

Catman

Interesting SwissAir is the safest, considering the crash over Nova Scotia.

But I guess that's from the aircraft, not the airline itself.

doc

One wonders if this is a conglomeration of coach, business and first class and whether all flights are international. It seems very reasoble and somewhat accurate to me. Interestingly, Austrian and Swiss Air are my preferred European carriers, though I have taken KLM more frequently. i'm a bit surprised that Thai was a little low, and not surprised, sadly, that US carriers fare so poorly, with NWA dead last! Sorry MJW. I also wonder about some not on the list like TWA- are they less than #25 or characterized as insufficient data?


Catman- Swiss Air is a big user of these aircraft.

james

An excellent survey and I would agree generally about right i.e. I don't see anything that looks too out of place! It's also good to see DL as best US carrier - I would tend to agree with that. I wonder however, if that has something to do with Altantic Excelence and the fact that some (many?) SR fyers will have been pointed in the direction of Delta over the years? There also seems to be a healthy national pride displayed (unsurprising) and a liking for the qualiflyer carriers, perhaps for the same reason as DL.

Anyway, thanks for posting.


[This message has been edited by james (edited 07-28-1999).]

ffhound

Objection please!

How can Swissair possibly have a better safety record than that of either Qantas or Ansett given that with both Australian airlines there has not been a single fatality since 1970.

Such an argument has more holes in it than a piece of swiss cheese!

cheers Peter

[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 07-28-1999).]

Rudi

the safety-survey is not an accident-statistics - it is swiss-ff-opinions/feelings only ...

james

Peter, that is pertly what I was driving I when I talked about national pride. Unlike quality of service, safety is extremely quantifiable - it is interesting how opinion does not necessarily reflect the numbers.

Rudi, do you have the bottom (worst) of the chart available to post? That could be just as interesting as the top...

Rudi

bottom (worst) of the chart available - no - it is not published (yet?).

you can read (in german) all details clicking at: http://www.bilanz.ch/ and than click on "TABELLE: Die besten Airlines, Hotelketten und Autovermieter"

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 07-28-1999).]

pgupta011

I've flown both KLM and NW extensively (though not in the past three years), and I would have ranked them very similar.

AusTXHiker

I am surprised that MH is ranked higher than TG or JL. The ranking, however, is consistent with my experience with these arilines. I am glad to see that my favourite airline SQ consistently ranks on top of different surveys.

geo1004

Interesting long-haul survey. Thanks for posting, Rudi. Austrian at #2 is interesting. And one would have a tough time suggesting that SQ does not deserve the #1 position.

Celestar340

Note that most airlines above serve Switzerland or at least connect with SR (the Australian carriers).

But I find it hard to believe that OS beats SR. I find the little red gloves the female flight attendants wear when making their inflight announcements with the microphone annoying. Swissair must be commended on their totally organic food though.

Hooray for SQ. Now who was it that said that he wouldn't fly them?

silverpie

That was me. And I still believe no airline is worth what I would be going through:

* A triple connection (it takes one connection to get from CHA to any 'port they serve(1), a second in that city, and a third in Singapore), including at least one interline;
* A connection in a city where neither English nor French is the local language (it's not just the counter people at the airline--I usually eat at the airport, and in case of a misconnect, would have to deal with hotel folk);
* Flying transpac and getting zero miles for it (no way could I afford anything but the cheapest classes, which give nothing in the one program I share with them, namely Delta).

(1) The only ones reachable without a connection from CHA are ATL, CLT, CVG, DCA, MEM, ORD, and maybe MDW.