Air New Zealand was named the Airline of the year for the fourth year in a row by AirlineRatings.com while Singapore Airlines gained the third position in the top 10 list of 2017 Airline Excellence Awards.

The Australia-based website referred Air New Zealand as the "industry trendsetter" and praised the airlines for its record-breaking financial performance, award-winning in-flight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and motivation of its staff.

"Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance," Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief told CNN.

The website also congratulated the Australian airline Qantas for acquiring the awards in the category of the Best Lounges, Best Catering and Best Domestic Service categories.

Apart from these, AirlineRatings.com also said about the airline companies who were listed among the top 10 airlines.

It said that if a person is looking for a premium experience, then Etihad Airways and Virgin Australia are surely the way he should opt for.

Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based airlines was awarded the Best First Class while Virgin Australia won the category of the Business Class.

Virgin Australia and partner airline Virgin Atlantic also won Best Cabin Crew for the third year in a row.

Emirates won the award for Best In-Flight Entertainment. AirlineRatings.com described it as "one of the pioneers in entertaining passengers".

In the category of value and safety in the low-cost airline sector, the AirlineRatings.com team awarded Virgin America (Americas), Norwegian (Europe), Kulula.com (Africa/Middle-East) and Scoot (Asia/Pacific).

Delta Air Lines (Americas), Virgin Atlantic (Europe), Etihad (Middle East/Africa) and Singapore Airlines (Asia/Pacific) were the winners of the award for excellence in long-haul.

The top 10 airlines for 2017 by AirlineRatings.com



1. Air New Zealand

2. Qantas

3. Singapore Airlines

4. Cathay Pacific

5. Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Australia

6. British Airways

7. Etihad Airways

8. All Nippon Airways

9. Eva Air

10. Lufthansa