The business-class cabins on Taipei-based Starlux Airways have a signature scent. A superb one. It’s known as Dwelling within the Air, and it’s pumped all through the house as a part of an in-flight expertise that showcases particulars different airways would possible forgo, which additionally embody branded bathroom paper and calming music within the toilets.
In mid-2023, I used to be inhaling that custom-designed perfume (I smelled notes of tea and wooden) aboard the startup airline’s first trans-Pacific route between america and Asia (L.A. and Taipei). I’ve flown in dozens of premium cabins, however the expertise on Starlux was one of the crucial polished and refined—mighty spectacular for any service, however much more so for an airline that launched in 2020.
It doesn’t harm that the airline operates new Airbus A350s, with cutting-edge, tech-forward options resembling Bluetooth connectivity and USB-C charger retailers at each seat. Starlux is the keen newcomer hoping to win over passengers touring to, from, or inside Asia. And this yr, it did.
Just lately, the worldwide air-transport score group Skytrax unveiled its annual World Airline Awards, a rating of greater than 325 airways in varied classes. The accolades are based mostly on enter from vacationers throughout 100 international locations who submitted thousands and thousands of votes by way of a web-based survey that was open from September 2024 to Might 2025. The checklist, which was launched in 1999, is now one of many largest annual air-passenger satisfaction surveys. It’s an “Oscars of the aviation trade,” if you’ll.
Among the many distinctions is the World’s Most Improved Airline, an award given to a service that has climbed essentially the most in survey outcomes yr over yr. This can be a notably notable recognition within the present air-travel local weather, during which delays are frequent, legroom continues to get tighter, checked luggage are not free, and airport lounge entry is lowering.
That’s why an “improved” airline is cause to have a good time. In 2025, Taiwan’s Starlux Airways nabbed the World’s Most Improved spot, with Italy’s ITA Airways coming in second place (and profitable the Most Improved in Europe) and HK Specific (a finances airline out of Hong Kong) coming in third. In the meantime, Breeze Airways was awarded the Most Improved service in North America.
Right here’s a better have a look at how (and why) these carriers lead the World’s Most Improved checklist.
What essentially the most improved airways have in frequent
There’s an overarching theme to the 2025 checklist of Most Improved airways: upstart carriers which have one thing to show. Starlux, ITA, and Breeze, winners of their respective areas, have been all established inside the previous decade. Up to now yr, these airways have considerably expanded their route networks whereas constructing distinctive model identities.
Starlux captured the eye of survey responders because of its main growth throughout the Pacific. At the moment, the airline operates flights from Taipei not solely to Los Angeles but additionally to San Francisco; Seattle; Ontario, California; and, quickly, Phoenix. A bigger growth to the U.S. East Coast and Europe is anticipated within the coming years.
Breeze Airways is one other newer airline that did nicely within the rankings, nabbing the title of Most Improved in North America. The service, which began flying in 2021, is the fifth airline startup created by David Neeleman, the founding father of JetBlue Airways. Its enterprise mannequin is to attach vacationers in cities which have little or no nonstop service, thus sparing of us from having to vary planes in out-of-the-way hubs. The airline has drastically expanded since its launch 4 years in the past; it now has 53 planes that fly to 70 airports—up from one route and one aircraft from Tampa to Charleston in 2021.
Right here’s the complete checklist of Most Improved Airways, in accordance with Skytrax.
World’s Most Improved Airways
1. Starlux Airways (hub: Taipei, Taiwan)
2. ITA Airways (hubs: Rome and Milan, Italy)
3. HK Specific (hub: Hong Kong)
4. Eurowings (hubs: Düsseldorf and Cologne, Germany)
5. EgyptAir (hub: Cairo)
6. Air Japan (hub: Tokyo)
7. MIAT Mongolian Airways (hub: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
8. Uncover Airways (hubs: Frankfurt and Munich, Germany)
9. Air Greenland (hub: Nuuk, Greeland)
10. Cebu Pacific (hub: Manila, Cebu, and Davao, Philippines)