What does New Zealand, home of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," love better than a blockbusting trilogy?
Hitting the jackpot four times in a row.
Just like when the All Blacks won their fourth Grand Slam in 2010, Air New Zealand has been named 2017 Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com in its Airline Excellence Awards , the fourth time it's taken the title.
The Australia-based website praised the "industry trendsetter" for its record-breaking financial performance, award-winning in-flight innovations, operational safety, environmental leadership and motivation of its staff.
"Air New Zealand came out number one in virtually all of our audit criteria, which is an exceptional performance," said editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas.
Breakfast of champions: Air New Zealand impressed across the board.
Qantas scores a hat trick
Also showing passengers a good time is Australian airline Qantas.
Having led the way by installing showers in its lounges several decades ago, Qantas cleaned up in the Best Lounges, Best Catering and Best Domestic Service categories.
If you're looking for a premium experience, AirlineRatings.com says Etihad Airways and Virgin Australia are the way to go.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad was named Best First Class and Virgin Australia's Business Class stole the top prize in its category.
Virgin Australia and partner airline Virgin Atlantic also won Best Cabin Crew for the third year in a row.
Emirates, described by AirlineRatings.com as "one of the pioneers in entertaining passengers," won the award for Best In-Flight Entertainment.
MORE: Richard Quest: 10 things to know about budget airlines
Low cost and long haul
For value and safety in the low-cost airline sector the AirlineRatings.com team gave the honors to Virgin America (Americas), Norwegian (Europe), Kulula.com (Africa/Middle-East) and Scoot (Asia/Pacific).
For excellence in long-haul, the winners were Delta Air Lines (Americas), Virgin Atlantic (Europe), Etihad (Middle East/Africa) and Singapore Airlines (Asia/Pacific).
AirlineRatings.com's top 10 airlines for 2017
1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Singapore Airlines
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Australia
6. British Airways
7. Etihad Airways
8. All Nippon Airways
9. Eva Air
10. Lufthansa
Minority will expose the beneficial owners of SML, recover funds paid to company...
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang has ‘decapitated’ the NPP’s strategies; don’t take them ser...
Abubakar Tahiru: Ghanaian environmental activist sets world record by hugging 1,...
Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang will serve you with dignity, courage, and integrity a...
Rectify salary anomalies to reduce tension and possible strike action in public ...
Stop all projects and fix ‘dumsor’ — Professor Charles Marfo to Akufo-Addo
Blue and white painted schools will attract dirt shortly – Kofi Asare
I endorse cost-sharing for free SHS, we should prioritise to know who can pay - ...
See the four arsonists who petrol-bombed Labone-based CMG
Mahama coming back because Akufo-Addo has failed, he hasn't performed more than ...
