Back in 2011, I started the Airline World Cup 2011. The premise is simple – all major airlines from each region competed against each other by your votes to determine the winners of each region that then advance to the knockout phase.

I set up each preliminary region and you were able to vote for your favorite airlines from each region.

The regions were:
Africa
Middle Eastern
Asia
Oceania
United States/ Canada
Europe
South America

Then, of course, I broke my wrists and haven’t been able to continue the contest. I’m back now and we’re moving on with the voting.

The winners that move on in each region based on your votes are:

Europe
BMI
Finnair
KLM
Austrian
Turkish Airlines
Swiss
TAP
Airfrance
SAS
Virgin Atlantic
Lufthansa
British Airways
Icelandair

North America / Canada
Virgin America
United
Delta
Continental Airlines
American Airlines
Air Canada

Middle Eastern Division
Qatar Airlines
Etihad Airways
Emirates

South America
LAN
TAM

Asia
Thai Airways
ANA All Nippon
Korean Air
Asiana
Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific

Oceania
Air New Zealand

Each airline that advanced was assigned a random number. These random number were used to pair them up and create the brackets. Random number 1 was assigned to 32, 2 to 31, etc.

Here is the downloadable bracket that you can print out and follow along with. I’m sure there will be office pools springing up worldwide on this very important tournament.

I will post each matchup individually with voting buttons to pick your favorite airline from the two. The polls will be open for 48 hours each.
Eventually we will whittle down to the winner of the MilesQuest 2012 Airline World Cup. The winning airline will be sent a trophy and a letter of congratulations on this important achievement.