SIA reclaims world’s best airline title, AirAsia takes low-cost honours

SINGAPORE, Sept 19 — Singapore Airlines (SIA) has reclaimed the title of the world’s best airline, while Malaysia’s AirAsia retained its crown as the world’s best low-cost carrier in the latest Skytrax rankings.

SIA displaced Qatar Airways, which topped the 2025 rankings, while Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan’s ANA All Nippon Airways and Turkish Airlines rounded out the top five, The Straits Times reported today.

The win is SIA’s sixth in the history of the World Airline Awards, with its previous victory coming in 2023. 

The Singapore carrier finished second behind Qatar Airways in 2025.

For Malaysian travellers, AirAsia’s showing provides a regional talking point, with the carrier named the world’s best low-cost airline for a record 17th consecutive year, while SIA’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot retained the world’s best long-haul low-cost airline title for a sixth straight year.

The rankings are based on a Skytrax survey conducted from September 2025 to August 2026, involving more than 24.8 million travellers from more than 100 nationalities who rated more than 300 airlines.

AirAsia was named world’s best low-cost airline by Skytrax for a record 17th consecutive year in 2026. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

SIA also won the awards for best airline in Asia, world’s best economy class and world’s best economy class onboard catering, while finishing second behind Cathay Pacific for the world’s best cabin crew.

SIA chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong said the award reflected the dedication and professionalism of the airline’s staff and thanked customers for their continued trust and support.

“We are grateful to our customers for their trust and support, and we are committed to delivering an exceptional, world-class travel experience every time they fly with us,” he was quoted as saying by the Singapore newspaper.

SIA Group recorded its highest-ever revenue of S$20.5 billion (RM64.6 billion) in the 2025/26 financial year, while SIA and Scoot carried a record 42.2 million passengers between April 2025 and March 2026.

The carrier is also preparing to introduce new first- and business-class seats on its Airbus A350-900 fleet, although the rollout has been delayed to the first quarter of 2027.

The new seats were initially scheduled to debut in the second quarter of 2026 and were also intended for Boeing’s 777-9 aircraft, whose production has faced delays.