AirAsia named world's best low-cost airline for 9th consecutive time

(From left) David Foster, Suhaila Hassan and Roberto Carlos receiving the award in Paris on June 20.

PARIS: AirAsia has been named the World's Best Low-Cost Airline for the ninth time in a row at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards.

The awards, known as the "Oscars of the aviation industry", was presented to Asia's largest low-cost carrier at a ceremony held at Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget Airport in Paris on Tuesday.

AirAsia Group cabin crew head Suhaila Hassan, who has been with the company for 20 years, accepted the award, flanked by AirAsia ambassador David Foster and Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos at the ceremony that saw 71 awards being given away.

The airline was also named Asia's Best Low-Cost Airline in Asia.

"We are now nine times world champion. To put it into perspective, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup five times, Michael Jordan was NBA champion six times and Michael Phelps holds the record for most first place finishes at a single Olympics with eight gold medals," said AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

"We take the world champion title seriously and we will strive to continue to improve for both our guests and shareholders," he added.

He said over the last 15 years, the group has created a great brand and wants to move towards One AirAsia, a truly Asean community airline.

"We also want to recreate ourselves as a digital airline and use technology to drive more value," said Fernandes.

Meanwhile, AirAsia X, AirAsia's long-haul sister airline, bagged the World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Cabin and World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Seat awards for the fifth straight year.

The Skytrax Awards are the global benchmark of airline excellence with over 19.9 million customer surveys completed worldwide by more than 105 nationalities, measuring standards across 49 key performance indicators of an airline's frontline products and services.

AirAsia and AirAsia X have won a combined 25 Skytrax World Airline Awards since the awards were introduced in 2001.

AirAsia is Asia's largest low-cost carrier by the number of passengers carried, with an extensive network covering more than 120 destinations in 26 countries across Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and the United States.