Cathay Pacific Airways has been named the "Best Inflight Travel Retailer in Asia Pacific" by travel retail publisher Raven Fox for the second consecutive year.

The Raven Fox awards, decided in an industry-wide poll, acknowledge the quality of airline inflight sales products. Cathay Pacific carried off the "Best Inflight Travel Retailer in Asia Pacific" trophy in 2005, 2003, 2001 and 1998.

Cathay Pacific has in recent years totally transformed its inflight shopping experience by offering a greater selection of goods - many of which are sold exclusively on Cathay Pacific flights. Shopping has become as much a part of the inflight entertainment experience as movies, music and food.

The airline took inflight shopping to a new high with the launch of "Discover The Shop" magazine, which goes beyond the traditional boundaries of a simple catalogue to include the kind of short features and an exclusive fashion shoot usually seen between the pages of glossy fashion and lifestyle magazines. From October 2005, passengers have been able to pre-order goods on a special section of the airline's web site to collect and pay for on their flight.

Cathay Pacific currently offers 197 different items for duty free sales. Innovate promotions, such as "Discover the Gold" earlier this year in which one in every 20 boxes of Goldkenn had five gram 999.9 purity gold bar have created a buzz among passengers and through the industry.

Cathay Pacific Director Service Delivery Quince Chong said that Cathay Pacific provides not only premium service but premium inflight sales products as well.

"Winning the Raven Fox award for the second straight year reflects the way we select our inflight sales products," he said.

Source: Xinhua