While airports in Switzerland are often rated as some of the best in the world, the same cannot be said for the country's airlines. According to the latest ranking by passenger rights organisation AirHelp, despite achieving high grades with customers, SWISS still ranks poorly when compared to the top carriers and even some budget providers.

Global Airline Ranking 2023

To create the ranking, AirHelp analysed the performance of 83 of the world’s largest airlines between January 1 and September 30, 2023. To place each carrier on the list, the organisation used the following metrics:

• Punctuality: how many of an airline's flights are on time? (Counted as arriving within 15 minutes of the published arrival time).
• Customer opinion: a metric based on 15.300 reviews which covered cabin crew, aircraft comfort and cleanliness, food offerings and entertainment on board.
• Claim processing: how airlines treat valid claims for compensation, speed and frequency of issuing valid refunds and how escalated claims get resolved.

Each airline was given a score in each category, with an average score out of 10 used to place them on the ranking.

Qatar Airways rated best in world in 2023

This year, Qatar Airways retained its crown of being the best airline in the world with a score of 8,38 out of 10. Their score was boosted by excellent customer reviews and the relative ease with which claims against the airline are processed. 

The airline was followed by budget airline Eurowings and Polish flag carrier LOT with scores of 8,27 and 8,11 respectively. The German airline was rated highest for on-time performance, with approximately 93 percent of their flights landing on time.

In terms of other categories, All Nippon Airways, Garuda Indonesia and Emirates garnered the highest customer satisfaction ratings and China and Brussels Airlines were rated best for how they handle claims. By region, Qatar took first for Asia, Eurowings secured gold in Europe and American Airlines was the highest-rated carrier in North America.

On the flip side, Tunisiair was rated as the worst airline on the list with a score of 4,12, followed by British Airways (5,03), Frontier Airlines and Pegasus Airlines (5,18). In terms of categories, Tunisiair was worst for on-time performance (3,7) and customer opinion (6,5), while British Airways was given a rather damming 1,0 out of 10 for its handling of refund claims.

SWISS performs poorly in AirHelp airline ranking

This year has seen SWISS perform dismally in comparison to previous years. After coming in 21st in autumn 2016, 36th in 2019 and 28th in 2022, this year the flag-carrier airline of Switzerland came in 48th with a score of 6,72. This puts the airline behind low-cost companies like easyJet in 45th and Wizz Air in 38th.

The ranking makes for awkward reading across the Lufthansa Group, with SWISS rated the worst out of all the subsidiaries - others such as Austrian and Brussels Airlines came in sixth and 12th respectively. However, the parent company still did worse, with Lufthansa coming in 57th place.

High praise for customer service, bad scores in punctuality and refunds

According to the report, SWISS mainly fell out of favour because of its attitude when handling delay and cancellation claims, only scoring 5,6 points out of 10. Another issue, highlighted by the airline itself as an area where improvements are needed, is punctuality: only an estimated 62 percent of SWISS flights landed on time between January and September this year.

SWISS’s main saving grace was found when it came to service and their workers. For food, crew friendliness and the quality of the airline in general, reviewers gave it an average rating of 8,4 out of 10. This makes it the 15th highest-regarded airline in the world.

Speaking to Blick, a spokesperson for SWISS said that they did not wish to comment on the findings of AirHelp as they are unaware of how the study is calculated. However, they noted that in general standards of customer service have been improving steadily and rates of customer satisfaction with the airline remain extremely high. When it comes to handling claims, they concluded that they would continue to follow the official legal requirements.

10 best airlines in the world in 2023

In all, here are the 10 best airlines in the world, according to AirHelp:

1. Qatar Airways
2. Eurowings
3. LOT Polish Airlines
4. Eitihad Airways
5. All Nippon Airways
6. Austrian Airlines
7. American Airlines 
8. China Airlines 
9. Widerøe
10. United Airlines 

For more information about the study, check out the AirHelp website.

Thumb image credit: Micheal Derrer Fuchs / Shutterstock.com