Qatar Airways, the national airline of the crisis-hit Gulf nation of Qatar, has been voted as the Best Airline of 2017 by consumer aviation website, Skytrax. This is the airline's fourth win in the last 10 years after it was voted the best in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Singapore Airlines has bagged the second spot while the Emirates and the Etihad Airways have been placed at the fourth and eighth positions respectively.
Other airlines that made it to the top 10 include ANA All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, Lufthansa, Hainan Airlines and Garuda Indonesia.
Qatar Airways was presented with the honour at the World Airline Awards at the 2017 Paris Air Show held on Tuesday. It reclaimed the honour after having finished second in 2016 when its rival airline, Emirates, based in Dubai, won the honour.
Qatar Airways also won the award for Best Business Class in the World and Best Airline in the Middle East.
Two Indian airlines found a place in the Skytrax Top 100 with IndiGo at the 57th position and Jet Airways at the 93rd position.
The Skytrax award is commonly referred to as the "Oscars of the aviation industry". The Best Airline of 2017 award for Qatar Airways seems to have come at the right time considering the ongoing crisis in the Gulf nation.
The airline has been caught in the middle of a dispute between Qatar and its neighbours in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt — who have cut off all diplomatic relations with the Gulf nation. This also includes an outright ban on Qatar Airways from their airspace.
The Doha-based airline is also trying to deal with a financial fallout due to the ban on large electronics issued by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom earlier this year.
