Irish carrier Ryanair has been named as one of the worst airlines in global rankings.

AirHelp looks at which airlines offer the best service, fly on time, and treat passengers fairly if problems occur.

The top three carriers are Qatar Airways, American Airlines and Aeromexico.

Qatar Airways has been ranked as the top airline for the second year in a row.

The best airline in Europe, at number four overall, is SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

It has a score of 8.07 out of 10, while Austrian Airlines gets a score of 7.9.

Flying high: Qatar Airways takes the top spot | Image: Arnoux Thomas/ABACA/ABACA/PA Images

In contrast, Ryanair flies in at 68th on the list, with just 5.6 out of 10.

Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus taxis in at number 47, with an overall score of 6.8 out of 10.

Others flying high on the list include Australia's Qantas (ranked fifth), Canada's WestJet (seventh) and Luxembourg's Luxair (eighth).

At the bottom of the list are Ryanair, Korean Air, Kuwait Airways and Britain's EasyJet and Thomas Cook Airlines.

AirHelp is a passenger rights specialist to help travelers get compensation following a disrupted flight.

It operates in over 30 countries and has helped more than 10 million travelers in the past six years.

This year it examined 72 of the world's airlines that data was available for.

Flights between January 1st to December 31st last year were looked at.

The company explains: "We calculated how many flights were on time, then we express this number as a percentage.

"The higher the score, the higher the percentage of flights arriving on time - so a score of 8.5 means 85% of flights were on time."

To assess the quality of service for airlines, people were asked about aircraft comfort, helpfulness of the crew and food offering.

In total, over 40,000 people in more than 40 countries were asked for their opinions in surveys.

Passengers rated each factor on a scale from 'very good' to 'very bad'.

Claim processing also made up one-third of the overall score.