Lufthansa
A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8.
- Consumer aviation website Skytrax recently released their ranking of the best airlines in the world.
- Asia and Middle Eastern airlines have dominated the top of the rankings, but European carriers have also performed well.
- In 2018, five European airlines made it into the top 20 of the overall rankings including Lufthansa, Swiss, and KLM.
Consumer aviation website Skytrax recently released its 2018 rankings of the best airlines in the world. Once again Asian and Middle Eastern like Singapore, Emirates, and Cathay Pacific dominate the upper echelons of the list.
However, European airlines have more than held their own.
In fact, the last non-Asian airline to take home Skytrax's Airline of the Year award was British Airways in 2006.
This year, five European airlines including Lufthansa, Swiss, and KLM managed to make it into the top 20. In addition to the overall rankings, European carriers have also garnered praise for their cabin service, catering, and customer service.
For example, Air France's La Premiere suites helped the airline win best first-class catering and best first class in Europe. While Russia's Aeroflot won the award for best catering in premium economy.
This year, a few of Europe's leading airlines made some major moves up and down the rankings. Aeroflot moved up seven spots to 23rd in the overall rankings. While British Airways moved up nine spots to 31st overall. This moved the venerable British carrier into Europe's top 10. On the flip side, Turkish Airlines slipped from 12th overall down to 16th place. Norwegian Air fell from 28th overall to 32. This lost the Olso-based carrier its spot in Europe's top 10.
The Skytrax rankings are based on the impressions of 20.36 million travelers from more than 100 different countries. The unpaid survey, which covered more than 335 airlines, measured 49 parameters ranging from boarding procedures to seat comfort to the quality of service.
Here's a closer look at the 10 best airlines in Europe: