| Top ten for safety (ATRA, alphabetical) | Top ten for service standards (Skytrax) |
| Air France-KLM AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles) British Airways Continental Airlines Delta Airlines Japan Airlines Lufthansa Southwest Airlines United Airlines US Airways |
1 Qatar Airways 2 Singapore Airlines 3 Asiana Airlines 4 Cathay Pacific Airways 5 Thai Airways International 6 Etihad Airways 7 Air New Zealand 8 Qantas Airways 9 Turkish Airlines 10 Emirates |
The geographical difference is especially striking above, with all the comfortable airlines (apart from Asiana) on or near the great circle between Istanbul and Wellington, and the safe but uncomfortable airlines based in the US, Europe and Japan (interesting that Japan is the geographical outlier on one list and Korea on the other). It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that standards of customer service have been driven down over the years in Europe and America. Europeans and Americans should travel more with Asian airlines and see how different things could be.