Airline Ratings, known for its safety and in‑flight product evaluations, has published its Top 20 safest airlines for 2018. The organization reviews more than 400 carriers worldwide, assessing safety performance and onboard product quality.
The airlines recognized for having the safest fleets in 2018 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, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
Airline Ratings also identified the Top 10 safest low-cost carriers: Aer Lingus, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, JetBlue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling and WestJet.
Rankings are based on key safety indicators including audits by aviation governing bodies and industry associations, government inspections, records of crashes and serious incidents, and fleet age. These factors are combined to produce a comprehensive safety profile for each airline.
“All airlines experience incidents, and many stem from aircraft manufacturing issues rather than airline operational failures. How a flight crew manages an incident separates a well‑run airline from an unsafe one. Simply grouping all incidents together can be misleading. Our Top 20 safest airlines lead in safety innovation, operational excellence and the introduction of advanced aircraft such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor‑in‑chief of AirlineRatings.com.
At the other end of the scale, the lowest‑ranked carriers—receiving one star on Airline Ratings’ seven‑star system—include Air Koryo, Bluewing Airlines, Buddha Air, Nepal Airlines, Tara Air, Trigana Air Service and Yeti Airlines.