Skytrax
Review Collector

Requirements

The collector runs entirely in your browser as a Chrome extension. No server account, API key, or external service is required. Before installing, make sure your environment meets the following:

• Browser: Google Chrome version 120 or later. Other Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Whale) typically work but are not formally tested.
• Operating System: Windows 10/11, macOS 12+, or any recent Linux distribution.
• Disk space: Less than 5 MB for the extension itself; collected data is exported as CSV/Excel/JSON files to a location of your choice.
• Network: A stable internet connection to load Skytrax review pages during collection.

Download

Download the latest packaged extension. The file is a standard ZIP archive containing the extension's manifest, scripts, and assets.

Installation

Because this extension is distributed for research use rather than through the Chrome Web Store, it is loaded as an unpacked extension. The process is the same on all platforms.

1. Open Chrome's extensions page

   In your address bar, type chrome://extensions and press Enter. This opens the extension management page.

2. Enable Developer mode

   In the top-right corner of the extensions page, toggle the Developer mode switch on. New buttons will appear in the top-left.

3. Load the unpacked extension

   Click Load unpacked, then navigate to and select the folder where you unzipped the collector. Chrome should now show "Skytrax Airline Review Collector" as an installed extension.

4. Pin the extension (optional but recommended)

   Click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar, find the collector, and click the pin icon. Its icon will then sit in your toolbar for quick access during collection sessions.

How to use

Step-by-step collection

1. Open an airline reviews page on Skytrax. The URL pattern is:
   https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/[airline-slug]/
   Examples:
   • korean-air
   • british-airways
   • singapore-airlines
2. Click the collector's icon in your Chrome toolbar a panel appears top-right.
3. The panel will detect the airline automatically. Click Refresh if needed.
4. Choose your stop condition:
   • Collect all reviews all available reviews for the airline
   • Stop after N reviews hard cap on count (e.g., 500)
   • Stop at time cutoff e.g., reviews from the last 6 months only
5. (Optional) Tick Anonymize author names to replace names with hashes.
6. Click Start Collection. The extension fetches each review page sequentially with polite delays (1.5-3 seconds).
7. When complete, click CSV / Excel / JSON to download.

Collection tips

• Bot protection. Skytrax uses rate-limiting (BotStopper). If you encounter "Bot protection triggered" errors, wait 5-10 minutes and try again, or solve any CAPTCHA in your browser by visiting the site directly.
• Page size. Default is 100 reviews per page (faster, fewer requests). Reduce to 50 or 20 if you encounter throttling.
• Newest first. The extension automatically sorts by post_date:Desc (newest first), which is required for the time cutoff filter to work correctly.
• Stable connection. A flaky network may interrupt sequential fetching. The extension stops cleanly on errors.

Output format

Each collection produces a single file (CSV, XLS, or JSON) with one row per review and the following 24 columns:

• review_id unique identifier
• airline_name airline displayed on Skytrax
• link URL to the review (when available)
• title review title (the headline)
• author reviewer name (or anonymized hash)
• author_country country in parentheses next to the name
• date original date string ("5th December 2024")
• date_iso parsed ISO date (2024-12-05)
• verified "Trip Verified" / "Not Verified" / null
• content review body text
• aircraft aircraft type (e.g., "Boeing 777")
• type_traveller Solo Leisure / Business / Couple / Family
• seat_type Economy / Premium Economy / Business / First
• route origin to destination
• date_flown month and year flown
• recommended "yes" / "no"
• overall_rating 1-10 score
• seat_comfort_rating 1-5 stars
• cabin_staff_rating 1-5 stars
• food_beverages_rating 1-5 stars
• inflight_entertainment_rating 1-5 stars
• ground_service_rating 1-5 stars
• wifi_connectivity_rating 1-5 stars
• value_money_rating 1-5 stars
• review_language detected language (en/ko/ja/zh/other)

The file is ready to import into R (readr, readxl), Python (pandas), SPSS, or any tool that reads CSV/Excel.

Troubleshooting

"Bot protection triggered" error

Skytrax has aggressive rate-limiting via BotStopper. Solutions:

• Wait 5-10 minutes between collection runs
• Visit airlinequality.com manually in your browser to clear any active CAPTCHA
• Use smaller page size (50 or 20)
• Avoid running multiple collections back-to-back

"Not on an airline review page"

The URL must match /airline-reviews/[airline-slug]/. The slug is the airline name with hyphens (e.g., korean-air, british-airways). Click Refresh in the panel after navigating.

Some fields are empty

Skytrax does not require reviewers to fill out every field. Older reviews often have fewer fields. The CSV will have empty cells where data was not provided.

Date parsing failed

Check the original date column for the unparsed text. Format is usually "5th December 2024" "2024-12-05". Localized dates may not parse.

Citation

If you use this tool in research that leads to publication, please cite the project. A formal citation entry will be added once the accompanying methodological paper is published. For now, you may reference the tool as:

This extension is provided for academic research purposes. Users are responsible for complying with airlinequality.com's Terms of Service, respecting reviewer privacy, and following their institution's research ethics guidelines. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Skytrax.

Questions or feedback? Contact the lab via the addresses listed on the main site.