Air New Zealand and Qantas are still flying at the top of the safest airline rankings issued annual by airlineratings.com, separated by only 1.5 points, and closely followed by a three-way tie among Cathay Pacific, Qatar and Emirates among full-service airlines.
In separate ratings, the top five safest low-cost airlines on the list were Hong Kong Express, new to the top, followed by Jetstar, Ryanair, EasyJet and Frontier Airlines.
Consultations with check pilots and aviation experts compliment the following measures to determine the world’s safest airlines:
- Serious incidents over the past two years
- Fleet age
- Fleet size
- Rate of incidents
- Fatalities
- Profitability
- IOSA certification
- ICAO country audit pass
- Pilot skill and training
Other factors considered are financial stability, which took newly-bankrupt Spirit Airlines off the list, and an assessment of how airlines manage critical incidents.
The full listings can be seen at airlineratings.com.