Japan Airlines is one out of ten airlines in the world to boast the prestigious 5-STAR evaluation by Skytrax. The Japanese carrier ranks high in all its four classes of service, but it excels in Economy Class, which has been rated the world’s best in 2019 by Skytrax. That’s, also, because of the generous space allowed onboard its long-haul aircraft: JAL has put a 9-seat-cross section (instead of ten) on all its B777s and 8 (instead of nine) on its B787s. The seat pitch and seat width are huge, too, if compared to those of other airlines. The same happens, on long-haul-dedicated aircraft, in Premium Economy, where the seat pitch is 42 inches (instead of 36-38) and seat width 19 inches. In Business Class, as many as 7 different types of seats are featured, depending on the aircraft and routes served (domestic, international, long-haul). In point of operations and fleet, the airline had to request bankruptcy protection and cut its network and fleet alienating all of the 34 B747-400s it operated following the 2008 global financial crisis. Today, its long-haul fleet is based on the B787s, which allowed the start of thin, long range routes to North America, but the European network is still rather poor (Photo Wikimedia Commons / Masahiro Takagi)
- - 5 STARS: Awarded to airlines achieving a very high, overall quality performance. It recognizes high standards of onboard product together with consistent and excellent standards of staff service across airport and cabin environments
- - 4 STARS: Awarded to airlines that deliver a good overall quality performance and provide good product standards across different travel cabins
- - 3 STARS: Awarded to airlines delivering a fair quality performance equating to the industry 'average' of acceptable product and service standards
- - 2 STARS: Shows airlines delivering a lower total quality performance, in some instances below the industry average across many rating categories
- - 1 STAR: Represents a poor quality of product delivered across the assessment sectors