Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific has been named the world best airline at the annual Skytrax awards.
國泰奪得2014 Skytrax全球最佳航空公司。國泰已先後於2003, 2005, 2009年奪得該獎項。近年國泰積極翻新飛機，花費近49億元，得獎實至名歸。
Cathay becomes the first airline to win the award four times, having previously taken the title in 2003, 2005 and 2009. The airline has spent $HK4.9 billion ($A670 million) revamping its aircraft cabins over the past four years.
Asian and Middle Eastern airlines dominated the top 10 as always, but two European airlines also made the list, with Turkish Airlines climbing to number 5 from number 9 last year, and German carrier Lufthansa rounding out the top 10.
Qantas meanwhile, dropped back to 11th place from 10th last year. This is the second time Qantas has fallen outside the top 10, falling back to 15th place in 2012. The airline peaked in 2008, when it was ranked the 3rd best in the world.
There was better news for Qantas in the awards by region, where it was named the best airline in the Australia/Pacific category, ahead of Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and Jetstar.
Virgin Australia came 15th in the overall rankings, with Air New Zealand in 16th place.
Qantas executive Olivia Wirth said the regional win was especially satisfying given the level of competition.
Garuda Indonesia took out the award for the best cabin crew, ahead of Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
Singapore Airlines won the award for best first class cabin, Qatar for best business class and Korea's Asiana for best economy class cabin.
Among budget airlines, AirAsia and offshoot AirAsia X took out the top two spots, with Jetstar ranked fourth best.
The Skytrax awards are based on a survey of 18.85 million airline passengers from around the world. Passengers from more than 160 countries participated in the latest survey, which covered 245 airlines worldwide.
The awards are not without controversy. Last month, Etihad Airways announced it would withdraw from the awards, citing unhappiness with Skytrax's rating system.
However, the airline still ranked 9th in this year's results, after Skytrax declared that an airline could not withdraw from the rankings as the results were decided by customers.
"An airline cannot be withdrawn from the World Airline Awards, since these results are directly decided by customers. Skytrax do not exercise control over which airlines are nominated in the survey ratings, and to subsequently try and conceal the results of a public vote would be unacceptable," Skytrax said in a statement.
Click on the links below to read our reviews of the top airlines.
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