This little-known Belgian international airline flying to the UK has been named the world’s ‘best’. AirHelp publishes a yearly report ranking the world’s best airlines based on three criteria: on-time performance, customer service and claim processing.

The passenger rights and flight compensation company gathers arrival and departure statistics for every plane and calculates how many of an airline’s flights are on schedule to work out on-time performance. For customer service, it asks thousands of air passengers from 54 countries to rate food, comfort and crew of the airlines they flew with.

For claim processing, AirHelp reviews troves of data which tells it how efficiently airlines handle claims, including how likely they are to pay out compensation. Airline providers are then given a rating out of 10.

This year’s ranking has caused a stir because for the first time since ratings began in 2015, a European airline has been able to win top spot in a chart dominated by Middle Eastern and Asian airlines. This year’s first place went to Brussels Airlines.

The Belgian airline received a rating of 8.12, narrowly beating Qatar Airways, which got 8.11. United Airlines came in third with a rating of 8.04. 

Brussels Airlines received a robust 8.7 for claim processing, beating second-placed Qatar Airways by a point and a half. However, the Middle Eastern company fared better on customer opinion, bagging a rating of 8.9, while Brussels Airlines received 8.2.

It also did better when it came to on-time performance. Qatar Airways was rated 8.2 while Brussels Airlines received 7.8. The Belgian airline topped the chart for best airlines in Europe. Qatar Airways took top spot for Middle Eastern Airlines, while Garuda Indonesia was Asia’s favourite.

Qatar’s Hamad Airport in Doha also won AirHelp’s best airport in 2024. In second place was Cape Town, South Africa, and in third, Nagoya in Japan.

In 2015, Qatar Airways was handed a rating of 8.91 out of 10. That number climbed to an all-time high of 9.08 in the winter of 2017 and 2018, coasting ahead of second-placed Lufthansa at 8.57. It remained in AirHelp’s top spot until this year’s rankings.