Have you ever had to brush crumbs left behind by the previous passenger off your plane seat? Or dig up crumpled napkins from the seat pocket? Just how clean are planes?

Besides arming yourself with sanitiser and packs of wet wipes, you can also put your inner germaphobe at ease by checking out Skytrax's list of the world's cleanest airline cabins before your flight.

The cleanest airline cabins belong to Taiwan's Eva Air, which moves up from second place in last year's rankings. Singapore Airlines remains in fourth position, behind Japanese carriers Japan Airlines and ANA All Nippon Airways, which are ranked second and third respectively.

Other Star Alliance members like Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines are also among the top 20.

The cleanliness accolade is part of the World Airline Awards by London-based research firm Skytrax, which has assessed airlines for different factors like cabin crew and in-flight entertainment through its global, annual airline customer satisfaction survey since 1999.

Skytrax's rankings are based on survey responses from passengers who rated the standards and quality of cleanliness in the aircraft cabin.

The final results took into consideration seat areas, tables, carpets, cabin panels and washrooms.

This year's World Airline Awards were decided by 21.65 million eligible survey entries from travellers of more than 100 different nationalities.