Virgin Blue has been named best low-cost airline in the Australia-Pacific region at the Skytrax world airline awards.

It's the fourth time the airline is claiming the title, beating Qantas offshoot Jetstar and Tiger, who came in second and third. 

Skytrax chairman Edward Plaisted says Virgin Blue is clearly capturing the customer's hearts in what is an extremely competitive region for low cost airlines.

Malaysian-based AirAsia took out the award as the world's best low-cost airline for the second straight year.  Qantas won for best premium economy class.  However they only finished seventh in the overall category. (Ed Note: No comment) 

The 11-year-old Skytrax awards are based on a survey of 17.9 million air travellers taken between July 2009 and April 2010.  They were handed out in Hamburg.