New ‘world’s best airline’ crowned as Qantas fails to crack top 10

September 18, 2026 — 10:00pmQatar Airways has lost the title of world’s best airline at the 2026 World Airline Awards, in a year when the highly regarded Middle East carrier has been disrupted by conflict in its region.Qatar was pipped by Singapore Airlines for the Airline of the Year, which took out the No.1 spot after the Gulf carrier won the previous two years.Singapore Airlines has been crowned the world’s best airline for 2026.Getty ImagesQatar Airways took second place – the position held by Singapore Airlines last year. It’s the sixth time Singapore Airlines has taken out the top award, a feat surpassed only by Qatar, which has won nine times.Qantas, meanwhile, climbed two places from 14th to 12th this year, still far below its historical results where it consistently ranked in the top five, including as recently as 2022. However, the airline has continued to climb back from its nadir in 2024, where it fell to 24th amid a series of scandals including illegally sacking staff, selling fares for flights that had already been cancelled and criticisms over the availability of rewards seats for Frequent Flyer members.Among Australia’s other airlines, Virgin Australian dropped three places to 37th, while Jetstar stayed in 88th place.Sign up for the Traveller newsletterThe latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.As usual, Asian and Middle Eastern airlines dominated the top 10, with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific in third and Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) in fourth. Rounding the top five was Turkish Airlines, which started flights between Australia and Istanbul via Asia in 2024 and plans non-stop flights between Australia and Turkey next year.Qantas is yet to regain its place in the top 10 under chief executive Vanessa Hudson.BloombergSingapore Airlines also won the award for world’s best economy class and best economy class catering, and was runner-up business class (behind Qatar Airways) and first class (behind Air France).The airline reported record revenue of $6.28 billion for the first quarter of this financial year, even as it slumped to an $83 million net loss due to conflict in the Middle East causing fuel prices to surge.This year a new award, for best onboard Wi-Fi, went to Qatar Airways. It was the only category in which US airlines dominated, taking all other slots in the top five behind Qatar (Delta Air Lines, United, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue).The World Airline Awards are based on online customer-satisfaction surveys conducted by consultancy firm Skytrax, with passengers from 100 countries taking part and more than 350 airlines featuring in the final results. Skytrax claims the awards are based on the world’s largest airline satisfaction survey.Some aviation experts have questioned Skytrax’s methodology and the lack of transparency in its awards process. According to some reports, Skytrax has refused to answer questions related to how its survey system works or even what the business actually does.Airlines, however, are quick to trumpet the results when favourable.THE WORLD TOP 20 AIRLINES IN 2026 Singapore AirlinesQatar AirwaysCathay Pacific AirwaysANA All Nippon AirwaysTurkish AirlinesEmiratesAir FranceHainan AirlinesJapan AirlinesKorean AirEVA AirQantas AirwaysSTARLUX AirlinesLufthansaSaudi Arabian AirlinesIberiaAir CanadaVirgin AtlanticSwissThai AirwaysMore:Air travelAviationQantasVirgin AustraliaJetstarCraig Platt is the digital editor of Traveller and has had responsibility for the travel content on the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAtoday digital products since 2007. He has worked in journalism for more than 25 years. Craig has a strong interest in aviation and airlines, as well as wildlife tourism and (increasingly) family travel. He has visited every continent, including once visiting six of the seven in a single year (he missed Africa).From our partners