AirlineRatings.com has named Qatar Airways as its Airline of the Year for 2024. Qatar flag carrier, Qatar Airways, nudged out previous winners Air New Zealand to reclaim the top spot after claiming it in 2021 and 2022, but just missing out in 2023. 

The world’s only safety and product rating website’s Airline Excellence Awards are judged by five editors with decades of industry experience. They combine major safety and government audits with 12 key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger reviews, profitability, safety rating, product rating, innovation and forward fleet orders.

So what was it that made Qatar Airways better than the rest? AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said: “In our objective analysis Qatar Airways came out number one in many key areas although it was a very close scoring for the top ten. The passenger reviews however scored Qatar Airways ahead of all airlines and its consistency and high standard of service delivery came through in the feedback.”

Qatar Airways also performed well in the Business category, taking the top spot thanks to its incredible Q Suite offering, which you can read about here. 

Sadly, our Aussie airlines did not rank as well as they did in 2023. Qantas slipped from sixth position to ninth and Virgin Australia went from seventh to tenth. 

Here are the top 25 premium airlines for 2024, as ranked by AirlineRatings.com: 

1. Qatar Airways 
2. Korean Air 
3. Cathay Pacific Airways 
4. Air New Zealand
5. Emirates 
6. Air France/KLM 
7. All Nippon Airways 
8. Etihad Airways 
9. Qantas 
10. Virgin Australia/Atlantic 
11. Vietnam Airlines 
12. Singapore Airlines 
13. EVA Air 
14. TAP Portugal 
15. JAL 
16. Finnair
17. Hawaiian 
18. Alaska Airlines 
19. Lufthansa / Swiss 
20. Turkish Airlines 
21. IGA Group (British Airways & Iberia) 
22. Air Canada 
23. Delta Air Lines
24. United Airlines
25. American Airlines

Related story: Virgin Australia is the best performing airline in Australia