Iberia reaches third place in AirAdvisor ranking over the best airlines on the continent, even surpassing Ryanair in a key indicator to evaluate cost-efficiency. The study analyzed more than 7.6 million flights and 831,000 passenger opinions to determine which airlines best combine price, service and reliability.
Low cost vs. traditional. Iberia is positioned as cheaper than Ryanair when we measure the real cost per seat kilometer, as revealed the latest report AirAdvisor Annual. The Spanish airline ties with Vueling in seventh place if we stick to the price (with a RASK of 0.0824 euros), while Ryanair falls to the last position of this specific indicator, tied with Air France.
Why is RASK important?. The RASK indicator (the formula being total revenue between available seats per kilometers flown) measures how much a passenger actually pays for each kilometer traveled, including all additional charges. With this parameter, we can see that low-cost airlines They are not so low-cost when we add extrassuch as checked baggage, seat selection or priority boarding. In this sense, if we stick to the RASK indicator, Iberia demonstrates that a traditional airline can also compete on prices without sacrificing basic services.
The complete ranking. According to the report From AirAdvisor, Aegean Airlines repeats as the best European airline for the second consecutive year with 93 points, followed by Finnair (89 points) and Iberia (88 points). The Spanish airline recovers positions after falling to sixth place in 2024, rising three places in one year. Lufthansa and KLM complete the top 5, tied with Scandinavian Airlines. At the opposite extreme, Air Europa once again occupies the last place in the ranking with 48 points.
Where Iberia stands out. The Spanish company obtains the highest scores in three key categories, according to the AirAdvisor report: travel with pets, family travel and safety. Its VIP lounges are ranked third in Europe, only behind Aegean and Finnair. In addition, Iberia was ranked 15th in the ranking of the 100 best airlines in the world in 2024. Its main weakness according to the report: reputation among customers, where it is the third worst valued.
The Ryanair case. The Irish airline leads with 88% punctuality in both 2023 and 2024, but loses ground in almost all other categories. Ryanair is ranked 12th in the AirAdvisor overall ranking with 58 points, surpassing only Wizz Air, LOT Polish Airlines and Air Europa. In addition, the company obtains the second worst reputation score among customers and, according to the ranking, it is the worst option for traveling with pets and in comfort.
The cheapest in Europe. For the third consecutive year, Wizz Air maintains the title of the continent’s cheapest airline, with a RASK of just 0.0417 euros per seat kilometer. They are followed by TAP Air Portugal (0.0713 euros) and Scandinavian Airlines (0.075 euros). However, it’s not all about the price, and Wizz Air occupies 13th place in the general classification, being the worst rated by passengers and registering the lowest scores for travel with pets and comfort.
The methodology behind the numbers. According to they claim From AirAdvisor, its team spent weeks analyzing nine different categories to create this ranking. The data includes 7.6 million flights operated between 2023 and 2024, more than 831,000 customer reviews from nine different sources, 75,000 lounge reviews, 46 industry awards and pet, family and comfort policies of 13 airlines. Each category receives a specific score that then adds points for an overall ranking.
What does this mean for the travelers. “Low-cost” and “traditional” airlines are becoming diluted and are no longer defined entirely by their quality/price ratio. There are other important indicators, such as the RASK, and airlines such as Iberia, KLM or TAP Air Portugal have adjusted to compete on price with low cost airlines, while ending up offering more complete services without surprise charges.
Therefore, for the passenger this means that comparing only the base fare of the ticket can end up being misleading. Hence, a recommended practice is to see the final price of the ticket on each airline that we weigh once all the extras have been added and basic services have been taken into account.
Cover image | Wolfgang Weiser
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