There are few things better than stepping off a plane and being greeted by that first blast of warm continental air. All the best holidays start on the outbound flight, so it’s important that you choose a reliable, comfortable airline to get you there.
How do you choose which airline to fly with? Sometimes you want to hear from experts (like AirlineRatings.com, which just named its annual ‘best carriers’ lists), but other times it’s just useful to know the experiences of other customers. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, which is why Which?, the UK’s biggest consumer watchdog, has conducted a survey across more than 9,000 flights in order to discover what the average customer’s most trusted air provider is.
And, in the short-haul category it was British provider Jet2 who claimed the number one spot. Jet2 had a very positive 92 percent approval rating for the booking stage, with only 0.2 percent of flights cancelled last minute, and passengers appreciated that cabin bags were included in the cost of a ticket, and that families usually end up sitting together. Jet2 also picked up Which?’s prestigious ‘recommended provider’ status.
Transparency in booking was a huge element of Jet2’s success in the survey, and, on the other side of the spectrum, a big reason why Ryanair was named the worst short-haul carrier. According to Which? ‘the unique selling point of Ryanair … is supposed to be that it’s cheap, but [it] got a mediocre two stars for value for money.
‘That’s probably because the price, if you want to take a cabin bag, will be a lot higher than the first figure you’re shown’.
The survey was also less than flattering for British Airways (BA), which came last in the long-haul category and featured in the bottom five for short-haul flights. Which? chalks this up to low ratings in the seat comfort, food and drink, and boarding categories, but in a statement to Time Out, BA stated that these findings are ‘entirely at odds with comments from the hundreds of thousands of customers who we know do travel with British Airways and then tell us about their experience’. You can read more about BA’’s placement in the study here.
Jet2 was also named the best airline in Europe at the 2024 Routes Europe Awards and it also announced loads of new routes from Bournemouth, London Luton, and Liverpool John Lennon airports last year. Safe to say it’s a pretty good time for the company, awards-wise.
The world’s top five short haul flight providers in 2025, according to Which?
- Jet2
- Logan Air
- SAS Scandinavian Airlines
- Norwegian
- Aegean Airlines
You can read more about Which?’s 2025 findings, including why Singapore Airlines came out on top of the long-haul category, here.
Eyes on the skies
There’s loads more where that came from. It turns out that this British airline has been named one of the best in the world for 2025, British Airways is introducing new slower, lower-flying flights between London and Glasgow, and here’s everything you need to know if you’re travelling abroad from the UK sometime soon.
Did you see that a brand-new train route will soon connect two of the UK’s most popular beach towns?
Plus: This British Isle now requires an electronic travel permit for visitors.
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