It’s raining recognition for Etihad this awards season | News
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has taken home awards for the airline with the best Economy Class and the airline with the best cabin crew for the sixth year running at the Business Traveler Middle East Awards 2026 in Dubai on June 18, 2026. The accolades follow a string of wins for the airline this awards season, with recognition also from the MENA Stevie Awards, the Business Traveler Cellars in the Sky Awards, the Aviation Achievement Awards and the APEX Best Awards, bringing the airline’s total to more than 30 individual awards from international and regional industry bodies in the past twelve months.
The Business Traveler Middle East Awards are entirely reader-driven, with frequent flyers voting throughout the year based on their own travel experiences. A sixth straight win for Best Cabin Crew reflects a level of consistency that can’t be achieved for any single campaign or moment; it is built flight after flight, year after year. For the Etihad crew, that consistency is rooted in a form of hospitality that comes from Emirati tradition and culture and is characterized by warmth, generosity and genuine care for every guest. It is this quality, delivered on board every flight, regardless of cabin or route, that keeps travelers voting for Etihad every year.
Etihad’s food and drink offering on board was a particular highlight this season, with the airline being named APEX Best Food & Beverage in the Middle East at the APEX Best Awards, and the champagne and red wine served in the first cabin both awarded silver at the Business Traveler Cellars in the Sky Awards. Elsewhere, Etihad Cargo was named Cargo Airline of the Year and won Air Cargo Pharma Service of the Year at the Aviation Achievement Awards, while the MENA Stevie Awards recognized the airline’s wider innovation programme, with Gold for its future-proof contact centre, Gold for its global driver service and Silver for its AI-powered service transformation.
These industry awards are important precisely because they are independently judged, whether by seasoned travel journalists, aviation experts or the traveling public themselves. For Etihad, being recognized by five different awards bodies in one season, spanning customer service, cabin crew, cargo, catering and inflight luxury, shows that the airline’s progress is being noticed and validated far beyond its own marketing. Each award represents an external benchmark against industry peers, and consistent winning across categories indicates an airline whose standards stand up to real scrutiny and not just perform well on a single metric in one year.
