Cathay Pacific Airways welcomes the announcement that it has been named Airline of the Year 2009 in the World Airline Awards run by the London-based Skytrax research organisation - the third time it has taken the honour in the past 10 years. The airline was also named Best Airline Asia in 2009.

The awards were presented to Cathay Pacific at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, where Skytrax was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the World Airline Awards. The 2009 awards were based on the annual World Airline Survey run by Skytrax, which was conducted between August 2008 and March 2009.

Skytrax Chief Executive Officer Edward Plaisted said: "In a global study that proved to be our largest-ever passenger survey, it is truly a great achievement for Cathay Pacific to have secured the world's best airline title in 2009. With over 16.2 million completed interviews, drawn from more than 97 nationalities around the world, we pay credit to the fact that Cathay Pacific is clearly delivering a quality of product and service that its customers really appreciate."

Cathay Pacific has been a consistent winner in the World Airline Awards, taking the Airline of the Year honour in 2003 and 2005 and winning plaudits for its Hong Kong lounges and inflight products. In the 2008 awards the airline took the Best First Class title following the introduction of its groundbreaking new cabins.

Commenting on the latest honour, Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said: "We are delighted to once again be named Airline of the Year in the Skytrax awards. This award is very meaningful because it was voted for by the travelling public and it's a real tribute to the dedication and professionalism shown by our whole team. At Cathay Pacific we have worked hard to develop a world-class international network from our Hong Kong home, offering passengers top-notch products and the best service in the air, and it's very pleasing to receive this kind of global recognition."