Airlines Vying For Passenger Choice Awards

The finalists for the Passenger Choice Awards, which award airlines honors for top service, have been revealed. The results are based on a yearlong online survey that let passengers sound off on 14 categories of airline service, from food and drinks to ambiance and in-flight entertainment.

The finalists for best food and beverage are Emirates, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

For the food and beverage category, passengers who traveled on flights where food was served were asked to separately rate the food as poor, fair, good, or excellent. An optional section for filling in an explanation for the ranking was included.

The survey was conducted in 13 languages by the Airline Passenger Experience Association, a network of airline travel businesses and professionals.

Airlines with up to 50 airplanes equipped with inflight entertainment systems vying for best overall passenger experience are Air New Zealand, Kingfisher Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Taca Airlines, Virgin America, and Virgin Atlantic. Airlines with more than 50 entertainment-equipped planes seeking the number one spot for best overall passenger experience are Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Garuda Indonesia, and Singapore Airlines.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Sept. 17 in Long Beach, Calif.

Lauren Mack is the Travel Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @lmack.