World’s leading low-cost carrier for the sixth time

Suhaila (fourth from left) and Audrey (fifth from left) accepted the World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline and World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline Cabin Crew awards from World Travel Awards president and founder Graham Cooke (fourth from left), flanked by AirAsia cabin crew.

AIRASIA has been named the world’s leading low-cost airline for the sixth year running at the World Travel Awards (WTA) grand final.

AirAsia emerged top in the category after receiving the most votes from travellers and industry executives, ahead of Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Ryanair, EasyJet, Jetstar Airways, Norwegian Air, West Air, fFydubai, Air Arabia, Flynas and Fastjet.

The airline also took home the award for World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline Cabin Crew for the second time in a row.

AirAsia Group cabin crew head Suhaila Hassan and AirAsia Group communications head Audrey Progastama Petriny accepted the awards on behalf of the company at a gala ceremony at Pátio da Galé in Lisbon, Portugal.

“In addition to a slew of digital initiatives, such as our Fast Airport Clearance Experience System (FACES) facial recognition boarding system and Freedom Flyer Programme, we have built up our customer happiness team to ensure we continue to improve on our ability to serve our guests, who demand friction-less, responsive customer support at a touch of the button on the go, and we are working hard to deliver that.

“We remain guest-obsessed as we evolve from an airline into a travel technology company. Our guests will always be at the core of everything we do, and we believe the various travel and lifestyle ventures we are working on now – from deals and e-commerce to fintech and logistics – will only serve to further enhance the overall AirAsia experience for them.”

Suhaila said: “We now have more than 5,900 cabin crew members from all over the world, including Australia, Brazil, Zambia and the United States.

“It’s amazing to see how far we have come, but what is truly incredible is to see that, despite this rapid growth, my colleagues have maintained the same passion for service that we had in the early days, and we are thrilled and humbled that our guests and our peers feel the same way too.”

The World Travel Awards is one of the most prestigious, compre­hensive and sought after awards programmes in the global and tourism industry. Established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across key sectors of travel, tourism and hospitality industries, the World Travel Awards brand is now recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of industry excellence.

-thestar online.