World’s Best Airlines And Airports

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World’s Best Airlines And Airports

Airhelp, the air passenger rights company has announced the results of its 2018 evaluation of the world’s airlines and airports. Airhelp rates the airlines and airports on quality of service, on-time performance, claims processing and online consumer sentiment.

Airlines

Qatar Airways tops the list of airlines beating Singapore Airlines, last year’s winner. This was achieved with improvements in on-time performance and claims processing. Singapore Airlines continues to have the highest score for quality of service, but drops to 4th overall this year.

Lufthansa is in second place, matching Qatar Airlines on customer service, but was let down by a modest record in on-time performance. Etihad in third place scored well on quality of service, marginally behind Qatar and Lufthansa and had good on-time performance, but did not score as well for claims processing. South African Airways rounded out the top five.

The highest placed UK airline was Virgin Atlantic in 10th place followed by Flybe in 14th. There were no US airlines in the top 20 with American Airlines coming in 23rd. With 72 airlines ranked, United Airlines at 37 and Delta at 47 were both in the bottom half of airlines.

The airlines with the lowest ratings include Air Mauritius, easyJet, Pakistan International Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines and WOW Air. Ukraine International Airlines achieved the lowest score for quality of service by a significant margin, but were rescued by one of the highest ratings for on-time performance and a good score for claims processing.

Airports

Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, heads the list of airports with high scores for on-time performance and quality of service, but with a lower score in customer sentiment. Athens International Airport and Tokyo Haneda International Airport are ranked second and third.

London Heathrow comes in at 80th as the highest ranked UK airport. Birmingham (96) and Bristol (99) are the only other UK airports in the top 100 with Gatwick coming in at 123. London Stansted came 140th out of 141 beating only Kuwait International Airport.

Seattle-Tacoma (34) and San Francisco International (46) were the only US based airports in the top 50 and overall only six were ranked in the top 50%. Newark Liberty International was in the bottom 10%.

Moving Abroad Checklist

Initial Considerations

Will your partner be travelling with you?

If so, what will they be giving up in your present home and will they be able to continue with their career in your new home? You will need to check whether a separate visa is required for your partner to work or if your visa gives that right. If they are unable to work you will need to decide on the effect on your finances and what alternatives are available to give a fulfilling life (home business, training, voluntary work).

Are you taking family with you?

Moving with family raises many exciting opportunities, but also can create challenges. The HSBC Expat Explorer survey indicates that expat kids can take six months to settle in to their new country (see article). Getting young or even older children to prepare to move and leave their friends and family behind can be a challenge and should be thought through.

The options for education is another area that needs to be thought through.

Moving your child to a new country with a different education system can be a great opportunity to broaden their experience, but if they are close to key exams the timing can make this inadvisable. If you do take your family with you, it is important to decide between joining the local school system or choosing an international school.

Where will you be living?

Whether you will be living in a house or apartment, furnished or unfurnished, these decisions will affect what you need to take with you. The time you are planning to live overseas will also affect whether you should leave your property at home empty, rent it out or sell it. See the article Sell, Store or Ship.