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Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised that several South African-based airlines were honoured at the recent 2024 Skytrax World Airline Awards.

I get it, we Saffas like to keep it humble, or critical really, to protect ourselves from nasty surprises, but maybe we should admit we’ve been jaded enough.

Let’s rather say that LIFT clinched the best low-cost airline award in Africa, while South African Airways (SAA) ranked as the third-best and cleanest carrier on the continent according to the awards.

That’s the spirit – buckle your seatbelts.

LIFT Company CEO Jonathan Ayache said the company is “absolutely thrilled to receive our first-ever Skytrax Award [as it] is a huge feat for our domestic airline that has been around for just shy of four years”, per BusinessTech.

LIFT did it right and ranked number one for ‘Best Low-Cost Airlines in Africa 2024’, followed by FlySafair, who took the second spot. The World’s Best Low-Cost Airline, for the 15th consecutive year, is AirAsia.

Known as the ‘Oscars of the aviation world’ or the ‘Passenger’s Choice Awards,’ these awards started in 1999, based on customer satisfaction surveys to find out which airlines people think are the best. For the 2024 awards, an online survey ran from September 2023 to May 2024 to gather customer opinions.

Overall, the top 10 best airlines in the world for 2024 are:

1. Qatar Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Emirates
4. ANA All Nippon Airways
5. Cathay Pacific Airways
6. Japan Airlines
7. Turkish Airlines
8. EVA Air
9. Air France
10. Swiss International Air Lines

Back on home turf, Airlink took the third spot for the Best Regional Airline in Africa while coming in 17th in the world rankings (Bangkok Airways took the global regional ranking’s top spot). Regional airlines are defined as full-service carriers that primarily operate domestic and/or international flights up to approximately 6 hours.

LIFT and Airlink came seventh and tenth, respectively, in the top 10 of the ‘World’s Most Improved Airlines 2024’.

As for SAA – which yes, has had some issues in the recent past but is doing its best to fly upwards and onwards – it hasn’t done too shabbily, ranked 69th for ‘the overall World’s Top 100 Airlines 2024,’ up from 72nd in 2023.

That, folks, makes the state-owned airline the third-best carrier on the African continent.

That’s not all for SAA, which also received recognition as the Cleanest Airline in Africa. This ranking is based on ratings of the standard and quality of cleanliness in the aircraft of seat areas, tables, carpets, cabin panels and washrooms.

When it came to ‘the Best Airline Staff in Africa’ – which looks at the combined quality of front-line airline staff service for both the airport and the onboard experience – SAA came in second (behind Kenya Airways), while Airlink placed fourth, LIFT was ninth and FlySafair just clinched 10th.

There’s it.

[source:businesstech]