Qatar Airways & Skytrax Have Beef: “World’s Best Airline” No More?
Qatar Airways is no doubt a world class airline, in terms of the passenger experience it offers. There’s also nothing the airline loves more than reminding consumers of how great it is, and how many awards it has won, primarily from Skytrax. Along those lines, it looks like the airline is now reversing course, and suddenly wants nothing to do with Skytrax… or something.
Qatar Airways wants to eliminate all mentions of Skytrax
If you look at any press release from Qatar Airways up until now, you’ll see how the airline describes itself, which relies heavily on the awards it has won from Skytrax:
A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways won the ‘World’s Best Airline’ title for an unprecedented ninth time at the 2025 World Airline Awards, managed by the international air transport rating organisation, Skytrax. Qatar Airways was previously named the World’s Best Airline in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2024.
The airline continues to be synonymous with excellence, and has yet again received recognition for ‘World’s Best Business Class’, and ‘World’s Best Business Class Airline Lounge’. As the leading connector in the region, Qatar Airways has also been lauded with the ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’ title for the 13th time.
However, something is going on. YHBU flags how the Doha-based oneworld carrier has sent out a memo to its trade partners, asking them to remove all mentions of Skytrax in connection to Qatar Airways (thanks to ritesa for flagging this).
This includes the Skytrax logos, badges, and award seals, and messages related to award claims. The airline provides the examples of eliminating references to the “World’s Best Airline” award, its “Skytrax Five-Star Airline” rating, etc.
What’s going on between Qatar Airways and Skytrax?
I have to be careful with what I say about Skytrax, because they like to threaten the media when they suggest that there may be a lack of legitimacy or a conflict of interest to their rankings. Keep in mind that Skytrax both rates airlines and provides consulting services to airlines, and it’s hard to imagine there’s not a link between the two.
I’d remind everyone of how in 2017, Lufthansa was awarded a five-star rating by Skytrax, with one of the key criteria being the following:
“A key factor behind Lufthansa gaining 5-Star Airline Certification is the recently announced new business class cabin and seat that will be delivered when the airline receives their first Boeing 777X aircraft.”
Right, Skytrax gave Lufthansa a five-star rating over a seat that didn’t actually exist at the time (and only ended up being introduced around eight years later, lol), despite claiming that star ratings are in part based on the following:
“The consistency of an airline’s Product and service is a critical issue within their final Rating, and detailed focus is applied to the delivered realities. Particular attention is applied to the quality and consistency of cabin seating, IFE systems and associated cabin products. An airline offering less than 80% fleet-wide product consistency may find these conditions will have a negative impact on their final quality rating determination.”
With that in mind, what could explain Qatar Airways suddenly wanting to pretend that Skytrax doesn’t exist? In a few weeks, Skytrax will be announcing its winners for 2026, and I have to imagine that the timing of that isn’t a coincidence:
- Did Qatar Airways find out that it no longer won the award for world’s best airline, and now the airline is essentially boycotting Skytrax?
- Was Qatar Airways paying for some “consulting” from Skytrax, and decided that’s no longer money well spent, and it’s now realizing the impact that has on rankings?
I do wonder if we could see Qatar Airways take really drastic action here. For example, in 2014 Etihad withdrew from Skytrax altogether. In other words, it’s not just that the airline wasn’t getting “consulting,” but it literally just wasn’t interested in being ranked or rated.
If Qatar Airways does fully cut ties with Skytrax, you’d think this would be a new business opportunity for FIFA, to get into the “airline ratings” business…
Bottom line
For years, Qatar Airways has leaned heavily into its Skytrax awards in its marketing, as it has considered itself to be the world’s most awarded airline. Now Qatar Airways is suddenly removing all mentions of Skytrax. This comes weeks ahead of Skytrax issuing its annual awards.
I wonder if this is as simple as Qatar Airways not winning the award for world’s best airline, or if there’s a bigger rift between the two organizations.
What do you make of this Qatar Airways & Skytrax situation?
