 14 - 20 March 2001 |
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Air Malta performs well in ‘Holiday Which' survey Air Malta held its own against some tough competition in a newly-released survey looking at preferred airlines. In the survey, which was compiled by ‘Holiday Which', some 20,000 members completed the questions, which focused on the concept of whether they would recommend an airline to a friend. Air Malta managed to achieve a creditable rating of satisfactory in most areas that the survey looked at, which concentrated on comfort, cleanliness and service, finishing only just under British Airways and beating some of the world's best known airlines, such as Lufthansa, Alitalia and Air France. Out of 61 airlines surveyed, Air Malta placed 27, with BA one above in 26 place. The top seven places were clinched by Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Palmair, Emirates, SAS, easyJet and Thai Airways. In the survey, members gave ratings for cabin air quality, cabin crew, catering, check-in staff, cleanliness of interior, entertainment, leg room, seat allocation, seat comfort, toilets and value for money. Air Malta achieved a good rating for seat allocation and satisfactory results for cabin air quality, cabin crew, and check-in staff, while notching up a better rating than British Airways for catering. In the ‘Holiday Which' survey, rating trends followed previous results, with long-haul and budget airlines doing far better than charters. Although scheduled long-haul favourites like Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines once again achieved excellent results, popular budget carriers, easyJet, Buzz and Go all fared well and overtook a number of charter services. In the survey, some areas, especially those relating to comfort on board, produced disappointing results for most airlines. One third of members were not satisfied with their seat, while no airline achieved better than a ‘50% - very satisfied' result for cabin air quality. Airlines did much better with cabin crew and cleanliness, although on-board comfort was another area that left members dissatisfied, especially with that well-known gripe of insufficient legroom. Another common complaint that sounded loudly among members concerned the issue of delays. Over half the members questioned had a delay of more than 15 minutes on either the outward or return journey, with almost one fifth delayed on both legs. Members who were delayed reported average hold-ups of 70 minutes for the outward flight and 81 minutes coming back. |
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