Cathay Pacific has been named the world’s best airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards, after placing 6th in 2013.
Cathay takes over from 2013 winner Qatar Airways and easily eclipsed Qantas Airways which dropped out of the top 10 again.
Cathay becomes the first airline to win the award four times, also taking honours in 2003, 2005 and 2009.
The airline is currently upgrading spending $HK4.9 billion ($A670 million) on upgrading its cabins across all of its aircrafts.
Cathay Pacific chief executive Ivan Chu said that he was very proud that the airline won the award.
There were also two surprise entrants in the Top 10 – Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, among the other usual top ranking Asian and Middle Eastern airlines.
Qantas won the award for the best airline in the Australia/Pacific category and ranked fourth on having the best in-flight entertainment system.
SkyTrax has a very broad reach, with the survey being compiled by more than 18.85 million passengers from around the world.
However, the competition is not without controversy, with Etihad Airways leaving the system after it complained about the ranking system.
