The World Airline Awards were held in Hamburg, Germany on April 1st 2009, where many awards were given out for different areas of aviation and air travel. This is the 10th anniversary of the SKYTRAX awards which are judged by more than 16 million air travelers during an 8 month survey. There were 34 categories that awards were handed out in including Best In-Flight Entertainment, Best In-Flight Cabin Crew, and Best Customer Service. In the major categories Cathay Pacific Airlines won for 2009 Airline of the Year, and Malaysia Airlines took the award for World’s Best Cabin Staff. The Best In-Flight Entertainment was awarded to Emirates, and the winning two awards, Best Airline First Class and Best First Class Airline Catering, went to Singapore Airlines. In the budget airlines, the Best Low Cost Airline for 2009 was awarded to AirAsia. Second place went to Air Berlin and EasyJet.

Cathay Pacific has won this prestigious award for the 3rd time and the CEO of SKYTRAX, Edward Plaisted said that this was largely due to their consistent customer service, excellent operations, as well as the top quality airport operations in Hong Kong. In the different regions the top airlines were as follows:

• Asia – Cathay Pacific
• Africa – South Africa Airways
• Australasia – Qantas Airways
• Central Europe – CSA Czech Airlines
• Europe – Swiss International Airlines
• Middle East – Qatar Airways
• North America – Continental Airlines
• South America – LAN Airlines
• Southern Europe – Turkish Airlines

The popularity of many airlines across the globe was shown in the appreciation and applause at the awards, and gives you a great idea as to which are the top airlines to work for if you are thinking about getting an airline job. Your airline career could be as a pilot, flight attendant, cabin crew, ticket taker, catering and more, so to find out about job openings check out Airline Job Finder right away!