And the airline of the year is…….Monarch

Monarch beat flag carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France to be voted as the trade’s best European airline in last night’s British Travel Awards.

Sister company Avro took the best seat-only company prize, as voted by the trade.

In another surprise result, the Post Office was named favourite travel insurance company and also favourite foreign exchange company.

Tour operator of the year was Virgin Holidays, while Virgin Atlantic became airline of the year and favourite long haul scheduled airline. Thomas Cook was travel agency of the year.

BA took three awards – economy airline, business airline and scheduled airline to Europe as voted by consumers. Thomsonfly was favourite leisure airline while Virgin Atlantic was awarded for best airline customer service.

EasyJet was favourite low cost airline, Thomas Cook favourite high street travel agency, Thomson favourite large package holiday company and lastminute.com favourite online travel agency as voted by consumers.

First Choice Airways was judged by a panel of experts to be the most envrionmentally-friendly airline, Intrepid Travel was most envrionmentally-friendly small tour operator and First Choice Holidays most environmentally-friendly large operator. The Nihiwatu Resort in Indonesia was chosen as the most envrionmentally-friendly individual hotel.

P&O Cruises was named cruise line of the year and also took the best mainstream cruise line award voted by the trade. Consumers also voted P&O Cruises favourite overall cruise line and favourite mainstream cruise line. Carnival UK sister line Cunard was the consumer’s favourite premium cruise line and the trade’s best niche cruise line.

Royal Caribbean International took best cruise innovation and best agency sales support by a supplier while sister line Celebrity Cruises was voted by the trade as best premium/luxury cruise line.

First Choice was named best tour operator to the Western Mediterranean and Thomas Cook, the best operator to the Eastern Med. Virgin Holidays was the best operator to the US and Canada.

Airport of the year was East Midlands, ferry company of the year P&O Ferries and Marriott hotel chain of the year.

The favourite city break destination was Barcelona and Australia was named dream destination.

Gold Medal was the best dynamic packaging holiday company while Medhotels was best accommodation only company. Avis was best leisure car hire company and Resorthoppa best holiday transfer company as voted by the trade.

Holiday Options to the award as the consumer’s favourite independent package holiday company while Club Med was the favourite activity holiday company. Inghams was named best ski and board operator.

In trade-voted categories, Spain was the best European tourist board, Dubai the best in Middle East/Africa, Hong Kong in Asia/PAcific and Barbados in the Caribbean.

The awards were announced at a ceremony in London. A total of 108 winners were published and 40 awards were presented on stage, including a special lifetime achievement award to Tom Nutley, chairman of Reed Travel Exhibitions, for 25 years service to the industry.

by Phil Davies