World Airlines Ranking

The world Airline rankings from Skytrax have just been released. Not surprisingly, only one American Airline figures in the top 25 - Virgin America (which is incidentally not of American vintage) - just about manages to make the grade at No.25.

What is more surprising is that a majority of the top 25 airlines are from the Asia region.  19 of these top Airlines are from Asia. While these rankings are provided based on an independent review, clearly service wins over efficiency.  In their endeavor to becoming more efficient (both cost and time-wise), Airlines in the western world have forgotten the most critical element of providing service, which makes or mars an experience.

On a recent trip I flew part of the way in Emirates (ranked No.1 in 2016), and another part of the way on American (ranked No. 77).  In both cases, coincidentally, I asked for a glass of juice about 30 minutes before the flight was to land. In Emirates, the Air Hostess was polite, explained to me that we were landing shortly and I better hurry up and complete my drink.  In American, the Air Hostess did exactly the opposite.  She promised me that her colleague would bring me my drink,and conveniently forgot about it. When I called for my drink, eventually the other Air Hostess turned up and refused to serve a drink because we were landing.

Of the top 25 airlines, three have steadily improved their position over the past five years moving from  a top 50 ranking to a top 25 ranking - Air France (up from 55 in 2011 to 14 now), Japan Airlines (from 49 to 21), and KLM Royal Dutch (from 46 to 24). KLM Royal Dutch and Air France share the same parentage, and obviously the same culture.  EVA Air,a top 10 contender, has moved quite dramatically from a rank of 16 five years ago to a rank of 8 in the current year.  A quick review of what really pulled them up reveals that all of them paid special attention to quality of service without necessarily attempting to invest more in the fleet.

On the other hand, two Airlines - Dragon Air, and Asiana Airlines have moved southwards in the ranking.  it is surprising to see Dragon Air's ranking going down, especially since it is a subsidiary of Cathay and was expected to share the same cultural moorings.  It would be worthwhile to watch this space.  Asiana Airlines, the other airline which has moved down in the rankings, probably having lost its s(e)oul. Both Dragon Air and Asiana have been concentrating on discovering more profitable routes rather than developing more profitable customers.

One important trait which these companies did (and continue to do) is to constantly push the envelope.  They have not rested on the fact that they have been performing well.  They have looked for improvements and innovations to continuously upgrade their offerings.

A basic tenets of quality is not how good you are perceived to be, and not necessarily how good you believe you are. To improve perceptions about yourself, it is important to be customer-centric.  Every action that is undertaken by a company must be focused towards ensuring that the customer gets what he wants.  For some reason, this fundamental of operating the airline business has got lost in the maze of achieving financial success.  Instead of worrying about the real customer, Airlines in the west have been chasing the surrogate customer - the shareholder.  Perhaps satisfying the shareholder ensures that the Top Management of a company survives, but in the long run, a company survives only because of its customers.