PAL ranks 62nd best airline in the world

MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines made the list of the world’s best airlines by British newspaper The Telegraph, with Middle East carriers leading the rankings.

PAL placed as the 62nd best airline in the world among 90 operators, piling up a score of 438 from the 16 criteria assessed by the broadsheet.

The Telegraph used four main criteria to arrange the list, and in those PAL scored 90 for in-flight experience, 61 for reliability, 55 for luggage rules and 23 for connectivity.

At 62nd, PAL bested some of the leading low-cost carriers in the world, such as AirAsia (63rd), Norwegian (64th), Scoot (65th), IndiGo (67th) and Vueling (76th). Likewise, PAL outperformed fellow flag carriers like Egyptair (68th), SriLankan Airlines (69th) and Royal Air Maroc (70th).

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines topped all carriers at first, second and third, in that order. Cathay Pacific ended up fourth, ahead of All Nippon Airways, Turkish Airlines, Japan Airlines and Air France.

Rounding up the world’s best are flag carriers Etihad and Korean Air, underscoring the quality of flight services among Asian airlines.

The Telegraph rated in-flight experience based on user ratings for legroom in the economy class; quality of in-flight food; and whether the airline provides free serving for coach passengers.

On top of this, reliability is evaluated using the on-time performance of the airline as monitored by aviation analyst Cirium.

The Telegraph also examined the luggage rules of every carrier, dishing out higher points for those that provide more check-in and hand-carry allowance. Connectivity is the easiest to score, as it counts the number of countries reached by the airline.

Points were also added on minor criteria like average age of fleet, quality of headquarters airport, value of rewards program and safety according to Airline Ratings. The Telegraph also considered the performance of every carrier at the industry standard Skytrax World Airline Awards.

PAL has sat side by side with the cream of the crop of the aviation industry recently, recognized by Cirium as the fourth most punctual airline for Asia and the Pacific in September.

The airline owned by the Tans is spending $450 million for capital expenditures this year, mainly for the upgrade of its in-flight services.