British Airways has been named airline of the year in the annual World Airline Awards, run by research firm Skytrax.

Announcing the award, Skytrax chief executive Edward Plaisted said: “In contrast to several previous year surveys, we found that the level of nominations for British Airways by their premium passengers was proportionately much higher than that of other airlines in the Top 10 rankings - clearly they are doing something right in that particular market. An airline undergoing considerable changes and cutting product levels to compete across Europe with the low-cost airline competition, a key element to emerge in the passenger voting for British Airways was that it performs well in terms of general product and service consistency."

The awards are based on annual World Airline Survey, carried out between September 2005 and May 2006, which measures some 35 different aspects of passenger satisfaction for each airline's product and service standards. More than 13.5 million questionnaires were included in the survey.

Last year’s winner, Cathay Pacific, came third in this year’s rankings. BA also won the award for best business class for the second year running.