These are the best airlines in the world for 2018

Air New Zealand

An Air New Zealand Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

• Air New Zealand has been named the best airline in the world by AirlineRatings.com.
• This is the fifth year in a row the carrier has won.
• AirlineRatings evaluates airlines based on 13 criteria including customer service, product offerings, and financial performance.
• No Airlines from North America made the top 10.

For the fifth year in a row, AirlineRatings.com has named Air New Zealand as the best airline in the world.

"Air New Zealand is being honored for the fifth consecutive year for its continued record-breaking financial performance, in-flight innovations, environmental leadership, young fleet and motivation of its staff," AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Thomas wrote. "These factors have stamped the airline as an industry trendsetter."

While other airline review sites look exclusively at the consumer-facing aspects of the industry, AirlineRatings.com takes a more holistic approach to airline evaluation.

To find the best airline in the world, the Aussie airline safety and product review site's veteran team of eight editors settled on 13 criteria which they believe represent the "heartbeat of the airline."

They include: product rating, safety rating, passenger reviews, fleet age, profitability, whether the airline offers premium economy, whether it offers flat bed seats in business class, does the company hold an investment grade rating, its performance on environmental report, does it have labor issues, has it been involved in any serious incidents, is the airline an innovator, and it must be a top 50 ranked airline.

Based on those criteria, the editorial team selected their picks for the top 10 airlines in the world. Here they are: