Emirates and Etihad among best long-haul economy airlines: Find best and worst airlines for 2024

Emirates and Etihad have been named among the top long-haul economy airlines, as per a survey of UK passengers. Singapore Airlines is the best overall carrier as it received a customer score of 83%, followed by Emirates at 81% and Etihad at the sixth spot at 70%.

Conducted in October 2023, the survey of Which? members relates to more than 10,000 flights. In terms of on time performance and last-minute cancellations, Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Etihad Airways scored 64%, 75% and 85% and 0%, 0.1% and 0%, respectively.

Find the best and worst airlines here

Seats on Singapore and Emirates had a similar pitch of 32 inches to 34 inches. Both received the same ratings on customer service, seat comfort, food and drink, in-flight entertainment, cleanliness, cabin environment and value for money.

In the category of boarding, Singapore grabbed five stars as opposed to four for Emirates. On the other hand, Etihad Airways received lower ratings in each categories in comparison, aside from seat comfort – as all three airlines conveniently scored four stars.

Besides the first, second and sixth spots grabbed by the three companies, Virgin Atlantic, Qatar Airways and Qantas completed the top five in the same order. Malaysia Airlines came in seventh, followed by KLM, Aer Lingus, Tui Airways, British Airways and American Airlines.

In terms of short-haul flights, Jet2.com was at the top spot and Wizz Air was ranked bottom for the second consecutive year. Which? didn’t have a good view on the standard of service experienced by passengers, adding many people struggled to get support when needed.

“Sample sizes are completely different for every airline”

Marion Geoffroy, UK managing director at Wizz Air, said the company did not consider the methodology used for the survey as transparent or the findings of the report as representative. “Sample sizes are completely different for every airline,” The National cited her as saying.

“Only 124 Wizz Air passengers were surveyed, while Which? spoke to several thousand people who had flown with some of our competitors … We conduct … surveys across our network, and hundreds of thousands of passengers have said they are satisfied.”

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