oneworld is best alliance for wine served in-flight for 10th year in a row

Tuesday, 12 March 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

oneworld has been judged the best airline alliance for the wines served in-flight by its member airlines for the 10th year in a row in a leading international wine-tasting competition.

The Cellars in the Sky Awards, now in their 33rd year, are run by Business Traveller, the multi-national magazine group, in association with the International Wine Challenge. The 2018 awards were presented at a ceremony at London’s famous Langham Hotel, following blind tastings by a panel of four leading experts of hundreds of wines served in First and Business Class on longhaul flights by 33 airlines from around the world.

This latest accolade consolidates oneworld’s position as the world most highly prized airline alliance, as the current holder also of seven of the leading overall ‘best airline alliance’ awards presented internationally, along with the only other alliance award presented for the quality of wines offered by airlines, Global Traveler’s Wines on the Wing.

oneworld’s member airlines also flew high in the Cellars in the Sky 2018 awards.

Qantas scooped the coveted trophies for Best Overall Cellar and Best First Class Cellar as well as Best Presented First Class Wine List. It also walked home with Gold Medals for Best First Class White Wine, Best Business Class Fortified/Dessert Wine, and, jointly with Cathay Pacific, Best First Class Sparkling.

British Airways took the highly-prized Gold Medal for Best Business Class Cellar.

Cathay Pacific received Gold for Best Business Class Red and was runner-up for Best Overall Cellar.

Malaysia Airlines was honoured with the Gold Medal for Best First Class Red, and Qatar Airways for Best Business Class Sparkling.

In all, oneworld member airlines took 25 of the 43 Gold, Silver and Bronze medals presented, including 12 of the 16 Golds.

The judges included luminaries from the world of wine, led by co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge Charles Metcalfe.

Last year, oneworld member airlines served some 30 million bottles of wine, including around 2.5 million bottles of Champagne.

Other ‘best airline alliance’ awards currently held by oneworld include:

FlightStats’ Airline Alliance On-Time Performance Service Award for 2018, for the sixth year running.

Business Traveler’s 2018 Best Airline Alliance for the sixth year running.

Global Traveler magazine’s 2018 GT Tested Reader Survey – for the ninth year in a row.

Trazees’ Favorite Airline Alliance, for the second time.

Business Traveler North America’s 2018 Best in Business Travel Awards, for the fourth consecutive year.

World Travel Awards’ World’s Leading Airline Alliance 2018 for the 16th year running.

Frequent Business Traveler’s 2018 GlobeRunner Award as Best Airline Alliance.

oneworld was launched on 1 February 1999 by founding members American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas. Since then, they have been joined by Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and SriLankan Airlines. Royal Air Maroc is on track to join during 2020. Around 30 airlines linked to the alliance’s full members are oneworld affiliate members, offering its full range of services and benefits. Fiji Airways was introduced as the first oneworld connect partner in December 2018, offering a subset of the alliance’s services and benefits.