AirHelp ranks the world’s best and worst airlines of 2023

• AirHelp, the world's largest air passenger rights organisation, publishes the annual AirHelp Score, which ranks the top airports and airlines of 2023

• The best airline was Qatar Airways, taking the top spot for the ninth consecutive year

• Two UK airlines ranked in the bottom 20, with British Airways in 82nd place of 83 airlines

London – 5th December 2023 – AirHelp, the world's largest air passenger rights organisation, has today released the ratings of all airports and airlines around the world in its annual comprehensive AirHelp Score. In this year’s analysis, 83 of the world’s leading airlines were ranked for their punctuality, customer opinion, and claim processing, based on data collected between 1st January and 30th September 2023. 

Key takeaways: highs and lows

For the ninth consecutive year, Qatar Airways has taken the top spot in the AirHelp Score airline ranking with an overall score of 8.38 out of 10, faring particularly well for customer satisfaction (8.8 points). The German airline, Eurowings, came in second place with 8.27 points, followed by LOT Polish Airlines in third place with 8.11 points, climbing nine positions from last year. Joint fourth place is occupied by Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (8.09 points), and Etihad Airways (8.09 points), with the latter retaining its 2022 position in the ranking.

Tunisair is the worst-performing global airline of 2023 with an overall score of 4.12. This is largely due to its low score for compensation claims, with just 2.2 points in the category, and 3.7 for on-time performance. This is closely followed by British Airways with 5.03 points, dropping 35 positions since 2022, and ranking lowest of all airlines in the compensation claims category, with a score of 1.0. Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines and Frontier Airlines in the USA also have a low score, both with 5.18 points.

Virgin Atlantic leading the way for UK airlines

The highest UK airline in this year’s global ranking is Virgin Atlantic in 35th place, scoring 7.07 points. The airline scored particularly well for its customer satisfaction with 8.4 points. Despite this, the overall performance of UK-based airlines looks poor in the international comparison. Of the UK airlines analysed, British Airways takes 82nd place, and Jet2.com ranks 64th (6.02 points). TUI Airways, which was not included in the 2022 ranking, just made the top 50 with 6.60 points taking 50th place, and easyJet was placed in 45th position (6.79 points).

Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp commented: “2023 has been another turbulent year for air travel, with the industry still navigating a faster-than-expected recovery from the pandemic. This year’s rankings indicate there is still work to be done by airlines around the world to ensure the passenger experience is improved, particularly in terms of punctuality and managing claims.

“As air travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, our goal is to continue helping passengers claim the compensation they are entitled to and to make this process as fast and seamless as possible. As part of this mission, we want to educate more passengers on their rights and encourage a stronger channel of communication between passengers and airlines.”

Find out more about AirHelp’s Best Airline Rankings Worldwide here. 

About the AirHelp Score

The AirHelp Score is a ranking of the best and worst airlines and airports in the world. AirHelp has been publishing the AirHelp Score since 2015 (with a break during the pandemic) to help passengers better plan their flights. The Score allows passengers to see what treatment they can expect from airlines and airports based on data. To calculate the AirHelp Score, multiple data sources and factors are combined to give passengers a comprehensive picture of how an airline or airport is performing. The airline score is based on three factors: on-time performance, customer opinions and complaint handling. These are weighted equally. The rating of airports is also based on three factors: punctuality, customer opinions, and food and business. Here, punctuality is the biggest factor at 60 percent. To determine the results, data from January 1 to September 30 was analysed and passengers were asked about their most recently used airlines and airports.

About AirHelp

AirHelp is the world’s largest air passenger rights organisation. Since its founding in 2013, the company has helped travellers enforce compensation for delayed or cancelled flights, as well as in the event of denied boarding. In addition, AirHelp takes legal and political action to strengthen the rights of air passengers further worldwide. More information about AirHelp can be found at: https://www.airhelp.com/en-gb/