Qatar Airways wins world's best airline award

Qatar Airways was on Wednesday named Airline of the Year in the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards 2011.

The Qatar carrier topped the annual rankings of more than 200 international airlines – up from third spot last year when the title was won by South Korea's Asiana Airways.

Qatar Airways beat stiff competition from four Asian carriers in the category to clinch the honour in front of global aviation industry executives at the Paris Air Show.
More than 18 million passengers worldwide were polled during the annual Skytrax awards.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker collected the award, together with two others for Best Middle East Airline, which was won for the sixth consecutive year, and Best First Class Lounge for its Premium Terminal at the carrier’s Doha hub.

Al Baker said: “Today, I am immensely proud of Qatar Airways and it is an honour on behalf of my workforce and my country to collect this prestigious award and for Qatar Airways to be named Airline of the Year.

“At Qatar Airways we always aim at doing the best in everything we do. To be considered as the top airline in the world is a huge achievement and a very rewarding moment in Qatar Airways’ history.”

Separately, Qatar Airways unveiled its newest multi-million dollar global television campaign at the Paris show

The suite of commercials focus on the globalisation of the Doha-based airline and its fine hospitality.

The commercials first went to air on leading international TV channels across Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America, on Tuesday.

The commercials were created by Batey, a Singapore-based creative advertising agency.
They will be aired on all major global and regional news networks including BBC, CNN, Channel News Asia, Al Jazeera, Sky News, CNBC TV 18, Euronews, and TV5 Monde, as well as Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Orbit Showtime.

Qatar Airways now covers over 100 business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

So far this year, Qatar Airways has launched seven routes - Budapest, Bucharest, Brussels, Stuttgart, Aleppo, Shiraz and Venice - from its Doha hub.

Over the next few months, others will be launched including Montreal, Canada; Kolkata, India; Sofia, Bulgaria and Oslo, Norway.