Emirates, US-Bangla win recognition

Emirates, one of two flag carriers of the UAE, and US-Bangla Airlines of Bangladesh were recently declared the "Airline of the Year 2022" and "Best Domestic Airline" respectively in the Triplover-Monitor Airline of the Year awards.

Novoair, another private local airline, clinched gold for the "Best Ontime Performance" in domestic flight operations and also won silver in the Best Domestic Airline category.

Meanwhile, national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines won gold in three different categories -- Best Economy Class, Best Inflight Meal in Economy Class and Best Regional Airline -- for the very first time.

Md Mahbub Ali, state minister for civil aviation, handed over the trophies among the winners of different categories during the event held at a city hotel on Friday night.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways and Air Arabia came out as the top "Cargo Airline of the Year" and "Best Budget Airline of the Year" respectively.

Winners were selected based on the frequent flyers' opinion poll, conducted over a period of three months.

The award ceremony was also addressed by Kazi Wahidul Alam, editor of The Bangladesh Monitor; Nisha Tasnim, head of operations at Triplover; Prof Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and also chairman of the jury committee; and Robin James Edwards, general manager of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka.

Airlines operating in Bangladesh were awarded in 13 different categories with winners receiving gold, silver and bronze awards depending on the number of votes they received.

Emirates clinched the highest number of gold awards with five in different categories, namely Best Business Class, Best Inflight Meal in Business Class, Best Inflight Entertainment, Best Long-haul Airline, and Airline of the Year.

Other than winning gold in the Cargo Airline of the Year category, Qatar Airways also came in first in the Frequent Flyer programme category.

Other than the awards for airlines, City Bank Amex Lounge was judged as the "Best Airport Lounge", which is a new category introduced this year.

Md Abdullah Al Mamun, managing director of US-Bangla Airlines, received a special award from the jury committee as the "Airline Entrepreneur of the Year 2022" for his outstanding contributions to the country's aviation sector.

The nine-member jury committee comprising distinguished personalities from various sectors scrutinised the opinion poll to select winners.

Leading aviation and tourism publication -- The Bangladesh Monitor -- introduced the Airline of the Year awards in 2007.

This year, the 9th edition of the event was supported by Triplover as title sponsor and Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka as the hospitality partner.