HOUSTON — Providing world-class customer service sits atop the strategic priorities for the Houston Airport System, and having world-class air service partners help make achieving that goal possible.

Yet another carrier providing service at George Bush Intercontinental Airport earned international recognition this week when AirlineRatings.com announced Air New Zealand as its Airline of the Year for 2017.

The global ratings agency promotes safety and excellence in the airline industry, and for the fourth consecutive year Air New Zealand was honored for its record-breaking financial performance, award winning in-flight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and motivation of its staff.

“We are very happy that Air New Zealand’s outstanding service and commitment to excellence has been recognized yet again by AirlineRatings.com,” said Molly Waits, the Director of Air Service Development for the Houston Airport System. “Air New Zealand has been a great partner here at Bush Intercontinental Airport and provides a high-quality level of service that has obviously been a hit with their customers in Houston.”

The AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards program combines four major international industry and government audits, with another nine key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger review ratings, profitability, investment rating and key product offerings.

AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said: "In our objective analysis Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance."

Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon said being recognized once again by the industry is a real highlight for its people in a record year of performance.

“The past 12 months have been exceptional for Air New Zealand,” Luxon said. “We've continued to invest in a streamlined and refurbished fleet, launched three new international routes and rolled out improvements to the customer experience with enhanced inflight entertainment and a multi-million dollar lounge redevelopment program.

“Above all, the award is testament to the talented team of people who make Air New Zealand great by putting customers at the heart of everything we do.”

AirlineRatings.com announced its top ten airlines for 2017, and that included six carriers operating out of Bush Intercontinental Airport: Air New Zealand, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Eva Air and Lufthansa, as well as Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Australia and Etihad Airways.

Air New Zealand also led the way for other Bush Intercontinental Airport carriers honored by the website. Emirates, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, Lufthansa and Delta are carriers at Bush Airport also honored with Airline Excellence Awards.

Emirates was honored for Best In-Flight Entertainment, while Delta was cited for excellence in Long Haul travel for the Americas division and Singapore Airlines for the Asia/Pacific division.  

Learn more about the AirlineRatings.com online at this link.