South African Airways (SAA) has been awarded the 4-Star Airline ranking for 2013 by Skytrax, the independent, global airline rating organisation.

The 4-Star Airline ranking recognises continued quality improvement in South African Airways onboard product and service, together with a number of changes to the home base airport customer experience in terms of product and service levels.

CEO of Skytrax Edward Plaisted, said: "South African Airways has managed to maintain quality levels throughout the past year, and are delivering a solid product and service standard to their customers and are making their 4-Star ranking well-deserved.

The Skytrax Star Ranking audit examines more than 800 areas of product and service delivery, across all areas of the airport operations and the cabin experience, and demonstrates that South African Airways passengers can look forward to a high quality of product and service.

Skytrax Star Ranking provides an accurate and independent guide for travellers around the world, and 4-Star is a most respected category for an airline. South African Airways has been ranked at 4-Star Airline status for a number of years, and we are delighted to see that they retain this status for 2013."

These views were echoed by SAA's Customer Service Executive, Suretha Cruse, who said: "Accolades and rankings such as this one from Skytrax reconfirms that our dedication and focus on strategic objectives to improve our customer value proposition will ensure that we eventually become a fully-sustainable business that can compete successfully in the global airline market in the near future.

"This ranking together with a number of awards from other foremost institutions as well as the prestigious Skytrax Best Airline in Africa Award, for 10 years in a row and the Skytrax Service Excellence Africa Award, for the third consecutive year, further exemplifies our customer focused efforts. We humbly accept this honour which certainly serves as encouragement, but we are also cognisant of the fact that there is an opportunity for improvement."

Skytrax is known worldwide as the leading, independent authority on airline quality and assessment, and has been completing flight checks with South African Airways during 2012, examining in detail all product and service delivery areas across both international and domestic routes.