Turkish Airlines elected "Airline of the Year" by world travel agents

During a one-month period, all travel agents around the world have been asked to participate in the first ever Worldwide APG AWARD survey to determine which Airline, in the Distribution area, deserves the label of Airline of the Year, as considered by the travel agent community.

APG, the Network for Airline Distribution Services, will present the AWARD (the APG Worldwide Airline Reward for Distribution) to the winning Airlines during the APG World Connect Conference in Washington D.C. October 23rd to 25th, 2013.

The opinion of the travel agent is not always sought and therefore the AWARD gives them the opportunity to express their choice from all global airlines based on their professional experience.

Turkish Airlines won first place on all aspects of Distribution Services: easiest to deal with, most recommended to clients and best in communication, and so Turkish Airlines will receive the "Airline of the Year APG AWARD".

In addition to this nomination and due to their high scores in the survey, three further Airlines, namely Air France/KLM, Cyprus Airways and Emirates, will be given each a “highly commended” APG AWARD reflecting their quality of services offered to and recognized by travel agents.

The AWARD questionnaire given to travel agents worldwide has been issued in many languages: English, French, Italian, Turkish, Spanish, Hungarian, Indonesian and Korean, and included three basic questions:

a) Which is the easiest airline to deal with as a travel agent?

b) Which airline do you most commonly recommend to your clients?

c) Which airline communicates the best with travel agents and customers?

1826 answers were received, originating from 58 different areas, from Albania to Yemen, including Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mali, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Senegal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkish, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA and Uzbekistan.

APG wishes to warmly thank all of the worldwide travel agents who participated in this first APG AWARD initiative as well as local media partners that supported the AWARD in their national markets.