From Covid to chaos, it's been another bumpy year for the aviation industry. In much of the northern hemisphere, the busy summer season was beset by delays and cancellations, while in the United States a new study this week found that airplane passenger satisfaction is declining across the board. Still, as we roll into the calmer travel months of September and October, there was cause of celebration in London on Friday, as the industry's leaders gathered at the Langham Hotel for the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2022 -- the first time the event had been held in person since 2019. Skytrax, a UK-based airline and airport review and ranking site, conducted more than 14m customer surveys in more than 100 countries between September 2021 to August 2022 to find out the world's current favorite airline. This year's winner was no stranger to the podium. The newly crowned Qatar Airways has won the top prize a total of seven times since the awards were introduced in 1999. The Qatari flag-carrier also scooped up eight more gongs on Friday, including Best Business Class, Best Business Class Seat and Best Business Class Lounge Dining. That's going to be a lot to bring back through hand luggage. Just two months ago, the carrier took the No.1 slot in AirlineRatings.com's ranking of the world's best airlines. Qatar Airways group CE, Akbar Al Baker, thanked his "incredible employees" for "their continued dedication and drive" and said that "to win these awards in the same year that we celebrate our 25th anniversary is even more rewarding." Shortly after receiving the award, he said the secret of the airline's sustained success was: "Consistent service, consistent product, consistent attention to passengers and absolute dedication from everyone that works in the airline."<br/>
oneworld
Cathay Pacific’s website and that of its low-cost unit buckled under a rush of flight searches Friday as the Hong Kong government announced that mandatory quarantine and other pandemic travel restrictions will be scrapped next week. “We are currently experiencing high traffic on our website,” Cathay said. “We have set up a virtual waiting room to better manage customer traffic to our site. You are in a queue at the moment, but you’ll be put through soon.” The airline advised visitors to keep the web page open and said they would have 30 minutes to book a ticket after entering the site. Travel agency Trip.com said as of 2.30 p.m. Friday, flight searches surged 95 times from the same time last week and bookings jumped 50% on its website. Tokyo and Bangkok led with jumps of 650% and 200%. Earlier Friday, Cathay’s budget unit HK Express was also inundated with flight searches as wannabe travelers rushed to take advantage of the easing of pandemic travel restrictions across parts of Asia. “Our website is busy due to the high traffic, which may cause longer time in flight search, booking, or receiving itinerary emails,” HK Express said in a pop-up message on the site. A spokeswoman for the airline said the notice was posted after Japan announced it would abolish Covid border controls. “We are fully committed to rebuilding the connectivity of the Hong Kong aviation hub,” Cathay said in a statement. “While we will continue to add back more flights as quickly as is feasible, it will take time to rebuild our capacity gradually.”<br/>