Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways International have seen their rankings rise in this year's world's best airline awards.

Bangkok Airways was the 27th best airline in the world, climbing two places from last year, while THAI's ranking leapt eight places to 33rd, according to the Skytrax survey.

Bangkok Airways was also awarded the best regional carrier for the eighth year running.

Bangkok Airways calls itself a "boutique airline" mainly serving tourist routes in the country.

THAI cabin crew were eighth, while Bangkok Airways cabin crew were rated 19th.

Qatar Airways switches places with Singapore Airlines to be the best airline, pushing its Southeast Asian rival down to second place.

Singapore also won several awards, including best cabin crew. The best economy class was awarded to Cathay Pacific Airways, and the Hong Kong-based carrier was also named the cleanest airline.

The Skytrax awards were inducted in 1999 by allowing air travellers across the world to vote and the online customer survey covering 100 nationalities was conducted from September last year to May this year.

Skytrax said more than 350 airlines are involved in the final results.