Cathay Pacific voted 'Airline of the Year 2005'

London-based Skytrax says its 2005 World Airline Awards poll was the world's "largest" passenger survey ever with more than 12.3 million eligible nominations. Votes were cast by 94 different nationalities from June 2004 to May 2005.

The latest awards come on top of the airline's Hong Kong lounges last month being voted the world's best in a survey also conducted by Skytrax Research.

"Airline of the Year is the established global barometer of passenger opinions about airlines around the world," Skytrax says. "Airline of the Year is not focussed on one specific sector of the passenger market. It encompasses a wide mixture of passenger types - business customers who may be more familiar with First and Business class and, most importantly, the large majority of global air travellers who travel Economy class, be it on leisure or business travel."

Cathay Pacific's The Wing and The Pier were earlier named 2005 Best Airline Lounges for First and Business Class travellers in the Skytrax survey. Skytrax said its lounge survey was based on the combined quality of product and service and "seeks out those airlines that offer something original and, above all, the best format".

Cathay Pacific was previously voted the Airline of the Year in 2003. It has carried off the Skytrax "Best Airline - Asia" award three times, "Best Airline - Transpacific" twice and won the Best Lounge award in 2002. In April this year, Hong Kong International Airport was named the World's Best Airport in a separate Skytrax poll for the fifth straight year.

Cathay Pacific Airways Chief Executive Philip Chen said: "Cathay Pacific being voted Airline of the Year is a great honour because it is such a world-class award. I would like to thank every member of staff around the world whose professionalism and dedication to excellence made this great achievement possible. Being a repeat winner reflects our commitment to deliver consistently high standards of service across the board. It also underscores our ongoing effort to make Hong Kong more attractive to passengers as a global aviation hub and gateway to the Chinese Mainland, and our determination to make Cathay Pacific as the world's most admired airline."

"The Skytrax awards are not only a great result for Cathay Pacific, they're are also fantastic news for all our staff and business partners in the UAE and Oman who have worked so very hard to make this possible. We've got a great team here and together we're going to build on this result to deliver the very best product and service to our customers", said Philip Herbert, Country Manager UAE & Oman.