Brussels Airlines has been named the 'best all-round airline in the world', according to AirHelp, the world's largest air passenger rights organisation.
The Belgian airline has dethroned Qatar Airways after six years. It climbed up to number one in the AirHelp Score for 2024 with an overall score of 8.12 out of 10, with a high score of 8.7 for claim processing. The airline scored very well for aircraft punctuality and the speed of customer service.
"We have worked very hard to improve punctuality in recent years, and with results. Last summer, we were among the best in class at the European level in terms of punctuality. If something does go wrong, we do everything we can to help our passengers as quickly and as well as possible and to find solutions," Nico Cardone, Brussels Airlines spokesperson, told The Brussels Times.
Not all 'doom and gloom'
He said often, only examples of where things go wrong make it into the media, "which can sometimes make it seem as if everything is doom and gloom" but stressed that the airline cannot rest on its laurels.
"Just because more than 99% of baggage rolls off the belt on time does not mean that it is not very annoying for that small number of passengers who still have problems with their baggage," Cardone said. "The same applies to a delayed or cancelled flight, or to the exceptional cases where the handling still goes wrong afterwards."
Qatar Airways, which claimed first place the past six years, now ranks second, with a score of 8.11. The airline ranked particularly high for customer opinion with a score of 8.9. In third and fourth place are US airlines United Airlines and American Airlines, both scoring 8.04.
Credit: Brussels Airlines
Like last year, Tunisair closed the ranking as the worst airline, with a score of 3.63. It performed badly in the area of claim processing with a score of just 0.2. Buzz (a Ryanair subsidiary) was the penultimately-ranked airline with an overall score of 4.45 and an even lower claim processing score of 0.1. Nouvelair was the third worst airline with a score of 4.48 and an equally low claim processing score of 0.1.
The AirHelp ranking is based on the airlines' customer service experiences, as well as feedback from passengers from over 54 countries about the quality of food, comfort and cabin crew service on their most recent flight in the past year.
In this year's analysis, 109 of the world's leading airlines were ranked for their punctuality, customer opinion, and claim processing, based on data collected between 1st January and 31st October 2024.
