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Qantas is known as one of the world's top airlines, but many Australians rank their national carrier the worst they have flown.

A survey by Australian consumer magazine Choice found Australians ranked Qantas, which sports the kangaroo as its iconic emblem, the worst airline for international travel and second least satisfactory for domestic travel.

Yet Australians still choose to fly Qantas due to its safety record and frequent flyer scheme, said the survey of 4,000 Australian air travellers.

«It saddens me to admit that as an Australian, I would prefer not to fly with our national carrier if I could reasonably avoid it,» one consumer, named Michael, told Choice.

But Michael said that because of Qantas' significant market share: «I will continue to remain a reluctant captive consumer of their meagre product offering».

Qantas, the recent target of a failed $9 billion takeover bid, said it was surprised by the poor ranking, saying that for the past 2 years it had been voted one of the world's top airlines in the Skytrax World Airline Awards.

Qantas said it ranked number two in the world in 2005 and 2006, adding the awards surveyed 13.6 million travellers in 2006.

Qantas told Choice that the difference in survey results may be due to the Australian focus of the local survey, with Australians having «high expectations of their national carrier».

Choice asked consumers to rate airlines on value for money, booking processes, convenience, check-in procedure, in-flight service, including food and entertainment, as well as seat comfort, legroom and cleanliness.

Qantas was ranked last in all but check-in and entertainment and scored the lowest overall satisfaction, 63 percent, compared with 78 percent for Singapore Airlines, which was voted top international airline in the Choice survey.

(Reuters)