• July 12, 2011

Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines were the best perceived airlines in the first half of 2011, according to YouGov BrandIndex (www.brandindex.com).

Rounding out the top 10 airline ranking, in order, are Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Virgin America, Lufthansa, Continental, AirTran, and Qantas.

British Airways was the airline with the biggest brand perception gain in the first half compared to the same time period last year, although the gain was small. All other airlines on the list of biggest perception gainers had negligible advances year to year -- Air France, Emirates, Northwest, Continental, Lufthansa, AirTran, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and US Airways.

The top 10 best perceived hotels in the first half of the year are, in order: Marriott, Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Hilton, Best Western, Hampton Inn, Comfort Inn, Hyatt, La Quinta Inn, and Ritz Carlton.

YouGov BrandIndex interviews 5,000 people ages 18 and older each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, more than 1.2 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 1.5MM individuals. Margin of error is +/- 2%.--Tanya Irwin