 |
|
|
|||||
Just in time for the start of this summer’s busy travel season, Skytrax has named Qatar Airways the worlds best airline at its 2025 World Airline Awards at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday. This is the Middle Eastern carrier’s ninth win at what has been dubbed “the Oscars of the aviation industry. “To retain this title in a highly competitive and ever-evolving global industry reflects [our] relentless efforts across every part of the business . . . [as we] continue to set new standards in aviation . . . and is a clear validation of our vision to shape the future of air travel,” Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said in a statement. The top spots were dominated by Middle Eastern and Asian airlines known for their exceptional service, luxury cabins, and state-of-the-art in-flight products, as airlines increasingly compete for the lucrative luxury market post-pandemic. Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, and All Nippon Airways rounded out the top five placings after Qatar Airways. In all, 325 airlines were surveyed by Skytrax. In addition to its No. 2 overall ranking, Singapore Airlines was recognized for having the “worlds best cabin crew” and “worlds best first class service.” Cathay Pacific Airways moved up to third place this year and was also honored for “worlds best in-flight entertainment.” Emirates ranked No. 4, and All Nippon Airways came in fifth place, winning for “world’s best airport service.” Here’s a look at Skytrax’s Top 20 list. The World Top 20 Airlines In 2025 1. Qatar Airways 2. Singapore Airlines 3. Cathay Pacific Airways 4. Emirates 5. All Nippon Airways 6. Turkish Airlines 7. Korean Air 8. Air France 9. Japan Airlines 10. Hainan Airlines 11. Swiss International Air Lines 12. EVA Air 13. British Airways 14. Qantas Airways 15. Lufthansa 16. Virgin Atlantic 17. Saudi Arabian Airlines 18. Starlux Airlines 19. Air Canada 20. Iberia One glaring omission: U.S. carriers. In fact, domestic airlines like Delta, American, United, and JetBlue didn’t even crack the top 20, much less the top 10. A look at the world’s top 100 airlines shows Delta Air Lines ranked at No. 22, trailed by United Airlines at No. 51, JetBlue at No. 52, Alaska Airlines at No. 69, Southwest Airlines at No. 76, American Airlines at No. 83, and Hawaiian Airlines at No. 100. For North America, specifically, Air Canada won “best regional airline,” while Delta Air Lines received the award for the “best airline staff service in North America.” The rankings come amid growing concerns about aviation safety in the United States after a number of staffing cuts at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Some critics wonder whether the cuts are causing current airport delays and possibly contributing to safety issues, in the wake of an alarming incident in April involving a 90-second outage in radar and communication systems at Newark Liberty International Airport that left controllers unable to communicate with aircraft. The episode prompted one anonymous air traffic controller to later call the airport “not safe.” A full list of winners across all categories is on view at the Skytrax website.
Category:
E-Commerce
Meta’s decision to introduce advertisements into WhatsApp has reignited competition in the secure messaging space, giving rival app Signal a fresh opening to make a pitch for users. After the tech giant announced it would begin to include ads in WhatsApps Updates tab, which is used by roughly 1.5 million people per day, Signal president Meredith Whittaker took to X to lure users to her messaging tool: “Use Signal,” she wrote. “We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance adswhatever the rest of the industry does.” Use Signal. We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance adswhatever the rest of the industry does. We lead we dont follow pic.twitter.com/11naKMBLlw— Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) June 17, 2025 Signal and WhatsApp have long competed to attract encryption-minded users. Meta’s promises that its new WhatsApp ad features would be implemented “in the most privacy-oriented way possible” have done little to quell doubts. Max Schrems, a data privacy advocate who runs the European nonprofit NOYB (which stands for “None of Your Business”), warned that with the addition of ads, Meta was blatantly ignoring European Union privacy laws. “Meta seems to follow the approach by the Trump administration and simply ignores EU rules as somehow ‘illegitimate,’ he wrote in a blog post. “European regulators urgently need to take clear action.” Privacy concerns over Meta’s data practices reached a fever pitch in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2021, WhatsApp saw another wave of users migrate to Signal after a privacy policy update allowed for increased data sharing with businesses and third parties. Monday’s addition of ads raised more concerns. As Lena Cohen, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Fast Company this week: “The fact that Meta has promised that it’s adding ads to WhatsApp with privacy in mind does not make me trust this new feature.” Signal is adept at turning such moments into branding opportunities. Earlier this year, it saw a surge in sign-ups in the midst of the “Signalgate national security crisiswhen a journalist from The Atlantic was accidentally added to a private Signal group chat involving the highest levels of government that discussed, in real time, an imminent U.S. military strikein part because it became part of the national discussion, but also because Signal ensured the story wasn’t spun to blame the app for the leak Whittaker has never hesitated to take a swing at WhatsApp and Meta, either. Earlier this year, in an interview with a Dutch newspaper, she discussed the app’s data collection, saying: It tells you exactly who youre communicating with, at what time, how often, and where you are. You can derive so much from that. WhatsApp can link that information to Facebook, to Instagram, and to payment data that they could buy into. Signal simply doesnt have all that data. Will Cathcart, WhatsApp’s head, denied that, saying his product used the same security protocol as Signal. (The war of words continued to escalate between the two for days to follow.) While Signal might have the guerrilla-marketing upper hand, WhatsApp wins when it comes to scale. WhatsApp reportedly has roughly 3 billion monthly active users globally, and Signal has an estimated 40 to 70 million. Signal is a nonprofit and open-source platform, whereas WhatsApp has benefited from Metas resources and marketing muscle (advantages that aid in user growth but can also prompt suspicions). “Meta’s business model is based on collecting as much data as they can about people in order to sell highly targeted ads,” the EFF’s Cohen tells Fast Company. “The reason this new [WhatsApp] feature concerns me is that it creates yet another opportunity for Meta to abuse people’s private information.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple won Creative Marketer of the Year at Cannes Lions, and Fast Company’s Jeff Beer sat down with their longtime agency partner TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s Katrien De Bauw (global president) and Brent Anderson (global chief creative officer) to discuss their most impactful work
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||