The world’s safest airlines in 2018 have just been announced

Air travel has never been safer as it was announced earlier this week 2017 was officially the safest year on record. However, some fleets are still better than others and 2018’s safest airlines have just been announced.

AirlineRatings.com have been monitoring more than 400 airlines since 2013 and their annual safety report looks at factors like major international safety audits, the age of the aircrafts and major incidents. The top 20 are regarded as “standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft”. Listed in alphabetical order, they are:

Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, Virgin Atlantic and, Virgin Australia.

Although the top list is in no particular order, the website did highlight Qantas as having an amazing safety record. It’s been operating for nearly 100 years but has had no fatalities and has been a leader for various safety innovations, including real-time monitoring of engines and precision approaches around mountains.

The report also has a special section for the safest low-cost airlines. The organisation commends them for passing the strict international audits that most others don’t, paired with excellent safety records. In alphabetical order again, they are:

Aer Lingus, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling, and Westjet.

Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said staff can make all the difference in the safety ratings. “All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one.”

AirlineRatings.com rates airlines out of seven stars and also includes its lowest-rated airlines that achieved only one star each; Air Koryo, Bluewing Airlines, Buddha Air, Nepal Airlines, Tara Air, Trigana Air Service and Yeti Airlines.