Emirates wins Airline of the Year award

Dubai-based Emirates airline has been announced the Airline of the Year 2022 while US-Bangla Airlines was the Best Domestic Airline in the Triplover-Monitor Airline of the Year award. 

Qatar Airways and Air Arabia came out as Cargo Airline of the Year and Best Budget Airline respectively. 

Winners were selected based on the frequent flyers' opinion poll, conducted over a period of three months.

Md Mahbub Ali, state minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, handed over the trophies among the winning airlines in different categories at a ceremony held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel Dhaka on Friday.

Airlines operating in Bangladesh were awarded in 14 different categories of services. They were given Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, considering the number of votes they received.

Emirates clinched five gold awards – the highest number of awards received by an airline – in different categories including Best Business Class, Best Inflight Meal in Business Class, Best Inflight Entertainment, Best Long haul Airline, and Airline of the Year.

National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines for the very first time won Gold Awards in three different categories including Best Economy Class, Best Inflight Meal in Economy Class, and Best Regional Airline.

Besides winning the Cargo Airline of the Year award, Qatar Airways won Gold Award in the Frequent Flyer Program category. Air Arabia became the Budget Airline of the Year. Private sector airline Novoair won the Gold for Best Ontime Performance in the domestic air services category.

City Bank Amex Lounge was awarded as the best airport lounge, a new category introduced this year.

Md Abdullah Al Mamun, managing director of the US-Bangla Airlines, received a special award from the Jury Committee as the "Airline Entrepreneur of the Year 2022" for his outstanding contributions to the country's aviation sector.

A nine-member jury committee comprising distinguished personalities from various sectors scrutinised the opinion poll and selected the winners.

Leading aviation and tourism publication – The Bangladesh Monitor introduced the Airline of the Year award in 2007. This year, the ninth edition of the award was supported by Triplover as the title sponsor and Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka as the hospitality partner.

The award ceremony was also addressed by Kazi Wahidul Alam, editor of The Bangladesh Monitor; Nisha Tasnim, head of operations of Triplover; Professor Shibli Rubayat-ul-Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and also the chairman of the jury committee; and Robin James Edwards, general manager of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka.