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Air New Zealand has been named World\u2019s Best Airline and Best for Inflight Entertainment in the 2026 USA TODAY 10BEST Readers\u2019 Choice Awards.<\/strong><\/p>\n The carrier also placed second in the Business Class, Cabin Crew, Economy Class and Inflight Food categories. Winners were decided by public vote from nominees selected by a panel of subject matter experts and USA TODAY 10BEST editors.<\/p>\n Chief commercial officer Scott Wilkinson said international recognition for the airline also helped put New Zealand in the spotlight.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Air New Zealand is recognised internationally, New Zealand is recognised too. We compete for travellers\u2019 attention alongside much larger airlines, so awards like these help more people notice us and the country we connect them to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational tourism is critical to our strategy and our role to connect New Zealand with the world and help visitors get here. The more people who consider New Zealand, the more opportunity there is for tourism to support businesses and communities around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilkinson said the awards also recognised the care staff brought to every journey.<\/p>\n \u201cOur crew go above and beyond to make our customers feel welcome and well looked after. It\u2019s great to see their work recognised by travellers around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The result for inflight food reflects the airline\u2019s focus on showcasing New Zealand through its onboard dining. It recently introduced new dishes from premium culinary ambassador Josh Emett across its premium cabins, featuring more local ingredients and flavours.<\/p>\n The wins add to a run of recent international recognition. Forbes Travel Guide named the airline\u2019s Economy Skynest Innovation of the Year in its 2026 Verified Air Travel Awards, and Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveller listed Skynest among its Bright Ideas in Travel for 2026. The World Travel Awards also named Air New Zealand Oceania\u2019s Leading Airline 2026 and Oceania\u2019s Leading Airline Brand 2026.<\/p>\n Wilkinson said Skynest was an example of New Zealand innovation being recognised on the world stage.<\/p>\n \u201cSkynest is a world-first idea designed around a simple customer need: a better way for Economy travellers to rest on long-haul flights. It shows how we can bring fresh thinking to the travel experience, and it\u2019s encouraging to see that recognised internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Air New Zealand has been named World\u2019s Best Airline and Best for Inflight Entertainment in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Other wins<\/strong><\/h2>\n