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Airline Star Rating Levels

Explaining Airline Star Rating levels

Skytrax World Airline Star Rating began in 1999, and is the prestigious, longest established and unique mark of Quality Achievement and a global benchmark of Airline Excellence, awarded following the professional audit analysis and assessment of airline product and front-line service standards.

The Star Rating uses a quality scale from 1-Star through to the exclusive 5-Star Airline award. Ratings are based on evaluation of product and service standards across the onboard and airport environments, using a unified and consistent rating system. (Airline Star Ratings are not associated with customer reviews, and are based on research by Skytrax Audit Office.)


A brief explanation of Star Rating levels is shown below:

5 starTo achieve a top 5-Star rating, the staff service or product standards must be either meeting or setting global best practice for the item under evaluation. For product analysis this is a clear, tangible item, and for service assessment we look for all aspects of excellence support by true consistency. (It is not necessary for an airline to achieve 5-Star for every element of the rating criteria)

4 star

The 4-Star rating represents where the airport / cabin staff service or product standards are meeting a good quality level (but not the best) for the relevant rating topic item. In some instances, a potential 5-Star rating may be lowered to 4-Star if the consistency is not being delivered.

3 star

The 3-Star rating is applied where staff service standards or product standards are fair or average. This may reflect some inconsistency or weakness in staff service, or poorer product standards in areas such as seating, IFE, catering etc.

2 starsThe 2-Star rating is used where the service and/or product standards do not meet required quality levels for the typical operation format of the airline (ie. full service or low-cost carrier). For the airline’s staff service, a 2-Star rating is applied where service is poor, inconsistent and/or unfriendly.

1 star

The 1-Star rating is rarely applied, but it signifies that product and/or service standards are totally unacceptable (ie. very poor). In some cases where a specific product or service item required to meet international expectation is not provided, we may apply the 1-Star rating.


Skytrax is the international air transport rating organisation based in London, United Kingdom. Established in 1989, Skytrax certified airline ratings are recognised and respected throughout the world.

Airline Star Ratings are known as a global benchmark of world airline standards, developed through many years of professional experience and Skytrax specialist, qualitative knowledge of the airline industry.

The World Airline Audit that may be used as part of a rating analysis delivers a complex quality analysis across all areas of Product and Service that customer experience across the airport and onboard travel experience, with rating accuracy supported by the Skytrax unified and global approach.

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