Etihad Airways announced that it has ended its ties with UK-based travel advisory firm Skytrax.
Etihad said it had sent a letter formally announcing its decision to withdraw from Skytrax, including the Skytrax World Airline Awards and the Skytrax Audit.
According to a statement from Etihad: “The decision was made after Etihad Airways carried out a review of the criteria and measurement of the Skytrax Airline Rating System. The measurement of customer satisfaction and feedback is important to Etihad Airways. The airline subscribes to monthly industry research and undertakes comprehensive monthly surveys to monitor customer satisfaction, using the insights to continually improve its products and services.”
Skytrax replied that it “questioned Etihad’s statement as potentially misleading and omitting salient facts that apply to an airline’s star rating.”
“For a star rating audit review where Skytrax works in conjunction with the airline, product consistency, planned changes and aircraft fleet information are transparent and key elements of the assessment criteria. When an airline is either unable or does not wish to provide information that may potentially influence the star rating, Skytrax has no option but to curtail work on such project,” it said.
The UK firm also added that an airline cannot demand to be withdrawn from the annual World Airline Awards, since the results are directly decided by customers.