Etihad has withdrawn from Skytrax airline ratings, including Skytrax World Airline Awards and Skytrax Audit.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline said it made the decision to dump Skytrax after the airline carried out a review of the criteria and measurement of the Skytrax Airline Rating System.
Skytrax is a UK-based consultancy, which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.
Etihad did not expand on its reasons for quitting Skytrax.
Ben Sandilands, an astute pundit on all things aviation-related, wrote in his Plane Talking blog:
"What wouldn’t the airline industry give to know more as to how Etihad reached this decision?
"The Skytrax methodology has been queried in this place and elsewhere for a long time, although not very much in the general media.
“If Skytrax is to be believed, it would have to provide a full transparent auditing of its votes, its security measures, its own sources of income, and everything that a body that claims such a position of power and influence received, considered or acted upon in reaching its conclusions.
"We await such vindication. Etihad no longer does."
Read the full Plane Talking blog here: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2014/06/08/skytrax-gets-booted-by-etihad-raising-ratings-doubts/
