Etihad Airways, which began flying less than six years ago, has won the award for having the best business class in the world following a global poll by 16 million air travelers. The national airline of the UAE also won the world's best business class catering award. The annual World Airline Awards, run by UK-based consultancy Skytrax, was conducted during a 10-month period among 97 different nationalities from around the world. The public poll took into account all aspects of the air travel experience - on the ground, at the airport and on-board - as well as the quality of customer service delivered by each airline's staff. Etihad's business class was placed fifth in the 2008 Skytrax survey and tenth in 2007. The 2009 award was presented to the Abu Dhabi-based airline at a special ceremony held in Hamburg, Germany. Etihad Airways' business class cabin offers passengers a fully flat bed on every aircraft in the airline's fleet of 29 wide-bodied aircraft. Edward Plaisted, chief executive of Skytrax, said: “For Etihad Airways to win the accolade of having the best business class experience when the airline flew its first aircraft just over five years ago is a remarkable success. This category of the awards is one of the most closely contested, and an area of great competition amongst the world's leading airlines. “These awards clearly demonstrate the huge value of Etihad's desire to focus and invest in quality customer service. At a time of global financial crisis and its inherent impact on the airline industry, it is heartening to see that Etihad are seeking to build passenger loyalty by creating a raft of quality product and service standards that a customer will genuinely want to come back to.”
