These airlines are the safest in the world
AirlineRatings.com takes a little of the fear out of flying
Flying can invoke fear in even the most experienced traveler.
However, those nervous fliers can find a bit of solace at Qantas or Air Arabia, which have been deemed the safest and the safest low-cost airlines in the world by AirlineRatings.com, which complied lists of the top contenders for each designation.
The website, which launched in 2013, rates the safety and in-flight product of 405 airlines around the world and produces an annual list of the ones it considers the safest for traveling.
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Passenger airplane getting ready for flight
Australian airline Qantas was ranked as the world's safest airline while Air Arabia took the top spot for the safest low-cost airline, AirlineRatings found.
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As the world's oldest continuously operating airline, Qantas has “amassed a truly amazing record of firsts in operations and safety, according to AirlineRatings.
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The Australian airline -- which was founded 100 years ago -- has been deemed the “most experienced” in the industry, according to AirlineRatings.
“Qantas was the lead airline with real-time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite communications, which has enabled the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue,” according to the ratings firm.
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Along with Qantas were 19 other airlines, which were deemed standouts in the industry in terms of safety, innovation and launching of new aircraft:
- Qantas
- Air New Zealand
- EVA Air
- Etihad
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- Emirates
- Alaska Airlines
- Cathay Pacific Airways
- Virgin Australia
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic Airlines
- TAP Portugal
- SAS
- Royal Jordanian
- Swiss
- Finnair
- Lufthansa
- Aer Lingus
- KLM
LOW-COST SAFETY
The website's editors also produced a list of the top 10 safest low-cost airlines following public interest.
Air Arabia, which ranked as the No.1 safest low-cost airline, is the "Middle East and North Africa's first and largest Low Cost Carrier," according to the air carrier's website. The airline flies to over 170 destinations across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe.
"Unlike a number of low-cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and have excellent safety records," according to AirlineRatings.
The following airlines made the top 10:
- Air Arabia
- Flybe
- Frontier
- HK Express
- IndiGo
- Jetblue
- Volaris
- Vueling
- Westjet
- Wizz
To gather data for the top safest and low-cost airlines, AirlineRatings editors included various factors like account audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, government audits, airline’s crash and serious incident record, profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives and fleet age.
Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of the Australian-based website, said the site only looked at serious incidents in making its determinations.
“All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems,” he said. “It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one. So just lumping all incidents together is very misleading.”
Thomas also noted, “some countries’ incident reporting systems are weak, which further complicates matters.”
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