Only 4-star airline in Northern Europe
This year got off to an excellent start with the award of four stars to Finnair by the Skytrax international website, which monitors and rates airlines according to their service level. Air passengers participate actively in the compilation of the website’s contents, giving feedback about airline and airport services. See for yourself www.airlinequality.com.
So what does it really mean when an airline earns four star status? It means that the airline in question can claim to verifiably offer safe top quality both on the ground and in the air, in Europe and further afield. Finnair earned its stars on the basis of completely unbiased auditing. The Skytrax auditors sampled 22 different Finnair flights in December to Europe, Asia and the USA, with as many as 750 individual service items checked for each flight.
Unpunctuality was unfortunately experienced on some of the flights. In one instance, an exceptional seven-hour delay led to missing a connecting flight, an unscheduled overnight and a late connecting flight. Irregularity is a regrettable part of commercial aviation. What sorts the wheat from the chaff is how the airlines deal with such situations which are very often beyond their control.
So what significance does this rating have? Consumers and media turn to Skytrax for comparisons of airlines and to read about experiences of flights, for example. Our excellent star rating and the Quality Approved by Skytrax mark that goes with it confirm quite simply that Finnair is a quality airline, in the same way as our membership of the oneworld alliance.
For Finnair, this really is splendid recognition. In these ratings, we leave behind most run-of-the-mill operators and take the lead for service in the skies of Northern Europe. Those stars are not awarded lightly: there are only six five-star airlines in the world, five of which operate in Asia and the other in the Middle East. Of course, we would aim to earn that extra fifth star, but in a western context, we are first class!
