The industry’s best contributions to the in-flight passenger experience have been honoured at the annual APEX Awards.
Dr Joe Leader led the tribute to Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, who received the CEO Lifetime Achievement award for his transformation of Canada’s national airline. Faced with the very real threat of disappearing, Air Canada has since been recognised for its commitment to the passenger experience through ongoing investments in the onboard product. Earlier in the day, Leader presented Rovinescu with Air Canada’s Five Star airline rating.
There were multiple successes for Air New Zealand and flydubai in the APEX Awards.
Air New Zealand triumphed in the Best Original Audio, Best Original Video and Best Inflight Connectivity Innovation categories, while it was a dual success for flydubai, whose 737 cabin programme walked away with the Best Cabin Innovation and Best Passenger Comfort Innovation Awards.
Elsewhere, there was joy for Virgin Australia (Best Video Curation); Bluebox Aviation (Best Inflight Entertainment Innovation) for its accessible IFE platform developed in association with Virgin Atlantic; and Singapore Airlines and Panasonic for Best Personalisation Innovation.
For the first time outside the confines of Hamburg, The Crystal Cabin Award recognising the best customer journey experience was given to digital airport app, FLIO.
Skydeals was recognised with the Newcomer Award.
The event also saw emcee Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of The Points Guy, announce the 2019 5-and 4-star Official Airline Ratings for Global Airline, Major Regional Airline and Low Cost Airline.
