South African Airways has been awarded the 4-Star Airline ranking for 2013 by Skytrax, the independent global airline rating organisation, for the 11th year in a row.
The 4-Star Airline ranking recognises continued quality improvement in South African Airways ’ onboard product and service, together with a number of changes to the home base airport customer experience in terms of product and service levels.
Edward Plaisted, Chief Executive of Skytrax, said: “South African Airways have maintained quality levels throughout the past year and are delivering a solid product and service standard to their customers, making their 4-Star ranking well-deserved.
“The Skytrax Star Ranking audit examines more than 800 areas of product and service delivery, across all areas of the airport operations and the cabin experience, and demonstrates that South African Airways passengers can look forward to a high quality of product and service.
“Skytrax Star Ranking provides an accurate and independent guide for travellers around the world, and 4-Star is a most respected category for an airline. South African Airways has been ranked at 4-Star Airline status for a number of years, and we are delighted to see that they retain this status for 2013.”
Suretha Crusewho, SAA’s Customer Service Executive, said: “Accolades and rankings such as this one from Skytrax reconfirm that our dedication and focus on strategic objectives to improve our customer value proposition will ensure that we eventually become a fully sustainable business that can compete successfully in the global airline market in the near future.
“This ranking, together with a number of awards from other foremost institutions, as well as the prestigious Skytrax ‘Best Airline in Africa’ Award, for 10 years in a row, and the Skytrax ‘Service Excellence Africa’ Award, for the third consecutive year, further exemplifies our customer focused efforts.”
Gary Kershaw, SAA’s General Manager UK & Ireland, said: “We are delighted with the award. We pride ourselves on consistent product and service delivery and very few airlines can match the 11 years we have retained the 4-Star status.”