Etihad and Skytrax battle of words over audit and awards

A dispute is brewing between UAE airline Etihad and Skytrax the organisation that audits airlines for passenger experience and facilitates the annual World Airline awards.
Time Aerospace thumbnail

Earlier today Etihad announced it was “withdrawing” from Skytrax, “including the Skytrax World Airline Awards and the Skytrax Audit.”
In a statement, the airline said the "measurement of customer satisfaction and feedback is important to Etihad Airways. The airline subscribes to monthly industry research and undertakes comprehensive monthly surveys to monitor customer satisfaction, using the insights to continually improve its products and services." It said it had made the decision to withdraw after carrying out a review of the criteria and measurement of the Skytrax Airline Rating System.
However, Skytrax responded by questioning the statement and desecribing it as potentially misleading and omitting salient facts that apply to an airline's Star Rating.
“For a Star Rating audit review where Skytrax work in conjunction with the airline, product consistency, planned changes and aircraft fleet information are transparent and key elements of the assessment criteria.When an airline is either unable or does not wish to provide information that may potentially influence the Star Rating, Skytrax have no option but to curtail work on such project.
“An airline cannot demand to be withdrawn from the World Airline Awards, since these results are directly decided by customers. Skytrax do not exercise control over which airlines are nominated in the Survey ratings, and to subsequently try and conceal the results of a public vote would be unacceptable,” the organisation said.