The
ATW
airline
industry awards program was born in 1974 to recognize excellence.
Originally a modest program, the ATW
Awards over the intervening decades have gained in importance and
stature to become one of the most coveted and valued honors a company or
a person in the airline industry can receive.
The ATW
Award winners are selected by the magazine's editorial staff after a
lengthy consultative process. Nominations are solicited from the
magazine's editors around the globe, and also are accepted from any
person or organization within the industry. The nominations can cover
all 11 potential award categories. However, the number of award winners
in any given year never exceeds seven.
Two awards are presented every year:
Airline of the Year and Regional Airline of the Year. Two more,
Passenger Service and Aviation Technology Achievement, are presented in
most years. Thus, there is room for only two or three more awards in
most years.
The ATW
editorial team of highly experienced professionals makes every effort to
select the best candidate in each award category, and then selects the
awards to be presented on the strength of each nomination in relation to
the other nominations. Winners are notified about two months in advance
of publication of the February issue.
The awards are presented during a gala
dinner. In even-numbered years the dinner is held in Singapore on the eve
of the opening of the Asian Aerospace show. The location for the
odd-numbered year dinner has been Washington, D.C.
Here are some of the criteria used to
consider an award in each category and a list of past award winners.
Above all of these criteria, however, is the requirement that award
winners have a superior safety record.
AIRLINE OF THE YEAR
AWARD
The most coveted award for overall
excellence goes to a major or large international airline which over the
years has exhibited outstanding performance in a number of airline
disciplines. For an airline to win this award it should have provided
exemplary service to the public while compiling a model safety record,
been innovative in developing new markets and services, been a leader in
applying new technology to the airline industry, and consistently been
profitable. In most years the winner of this award has won two or more
of our other awards previously.
PAST WINNERS
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REGIONAL AIRLINE OF
THE YEAR AWARD
This is our top award for the regional
segment of the airline industry. It has the same basic criteria as our
Airline of the Year award. The winner should have displayed consistent
superior service to the public, and in some cases to its parent airline.
We, like everyone else, are still wrestling with a precise definition
for a regional airline. For now we are confining it to airlines which
have essentially short-haul operations using predominantly
less-than-100-seat transports.
PAST
WINNERS
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AVIATION TECHNOLOGY
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
(FORMERLY KNOWN AS AIRLINE
TECHNOLOGY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD)
The last of our three "major
awards," this one goes to a manufacturer serving the airline
industry that has developed a product that has significantly advanced
airline service, capability, efficiency and/or airline safety. To date
it has gone chiefly to makers of transports, engines and avionics, but
could go to manufacturers of other products such as computers and other
support equipment. The case must be made that the product established a
significant improvement from what had come before rather than an
evolutionary step-advance in a process shared by many manufacturers.
PAST
WINNERS
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PASSENGER SERVICE
AWARD
Next to our Airline of the Year awards,
this is probably the most valued by airlines for its value in the
marketplace. It goes to an airline that has been innovative and
consistently superior in providing outstanding quality passenger service
at a fair price. One measure of this is public acceptance and
reputation. Innovation is especially important in this category.
PAST
WINNERS
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AIRLINE MARKET
LEADERSHIP AWARD
(FORMERLY KNOWN AS MARKET DEVELOPMENT
AWARD)
This award goes to an airline--passenger,
cargo or both--which has developed a new market, either a new city-pair,
or customer base, and done exciting things. These can be either new
types of service bringing new customers to the airline industry, or
entering markets and drawing business away from other carriers. An
important consideration in the selection is whether the airline is
making any money with the new program; success is essential. We are
looking for new things that will last.
PAST WINNERS
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JOSEPH S. MURPHY INDUSTRY SERVICE AWARD
Another important award, the Industry
Service Award is the only one going to an individual or an organization,
inside or outside the industry, who has performed outstanding service
benefiting the airline industry.
It can go to a person such as a
government or regulatory figure whose work has helped airlines in
general. It can go to a person in the industry who has given his or her
time beyond the scope of his or her own airline to benefit other
airlines or the industry, and it can be awarded to organizations that
make the airline industry a better place
This award can also be called the
PUBLIC
SERVICE AWARD and go to an
individual in the airline industry who has brought credit to the airline
industry by performing outstanding public service.
PAST
WINNERS
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AIRLINE TECHNOLOGY
LEADERSHIP AWARD
(FORMERLY KNOWN AS TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
AWARD)
This award goes to an airline, small or
large, that has displayed innovative, superior management in applying
technology to bring exceptional service to the traveling and shipping
public. It can be awarded to an airline that has developed advanced
airline equipment or systems, or has made a significant contribution by
working with manufacturers to develop these items. It can also go to an
airline that has demonstrated superior management of its technology in
such fields as maintenance, computer systems, communications or
marketing to list some examples.
PAST
WINNERS
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
AWARD
This category covers airlines that have
demonstrated innovative, exceptional performance in managing their
finances. Generally the winners have been airlines that have enjoyed
financial success over a period of years. There is an emphasis on
outstanding performance over time rather than short-term spectaculars.
The case for these winners often is made through empirical examination
of numbers, and thus can be one of the least subjective awards given.
PAST
WINNERS
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LABOR/MANAGEMENT
RELATIONS AWARD
This award goes to an airline that has
demonstrated originality and outstanding performance in its relations
with labor. Generally the winners have been airlines that have utilized
extra efforts from both labor and management to continue providing
superior service to the traveling public.
We have found that airlines that get
along best with themselves generally have the best relationships with
their customers. In this era of downsizing and other items of stress in
labor relations the focus is on picking an airline that has found a way
to weather these challenges with some new and imaginative programs to
ensure better labor/management relations in the future.
PAST WINNERS
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CARGO AIRLINE OF THE
YEAR AWARD
(FORMERLY KNOWN AS CARGO DEVELOPMENT
AWARD)
This award goes to an airline that has
displayed creativity in developing new markets and/or services in
airline freight or express service. It can go to any size airline or
combination carrier as well as all-cargo airlines. The new service
should provide new capabilities to the shipping public while also
providing positive financial returns to the airline.
PAST WINNERS
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AIRLINE PUBLIC
RELATIONS AWARD
An award for airlines that have exhibited
outstanding performance in public and/or press relations. It goes to an
airline public/media relations department that has demonstrated
originality and extra effort in presenting an accurate and positive
picture of its airline and/or the airline industry in general. In this
award we look for the combination of an airline management that is
willing to commit the resources for an outstanding media/public
relations program and the staff that can deliver the product.
PAST WINNERS
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PHOENIX AWARD
Created in 2004: ATW
introduces a new award to acknowledge the dramatic changes that have
occurred in commercial aviation since the dawn of the new Millennium.
The Phoenix Award celebrates airlines that have achieved a commercial
rebirth through a life-changing transformation.
PAST WINNERS
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