Qantas retains “safest airline” title

Qantas has been named as the world’s safest airline for the third year in a row.

In its latest annual report, AirlineRatings.com, which monitors the safety records of 407 carriers, confirmed that Qantas once again topped the list, having not had a serious safety incident in 2015. In fact the Australian carrier has a fatality-free record since the dawn of the jet era.

Of the 407 airlines surveyed, 148 have the top seven-star safety ranking, with Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, ANA, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore Airlines, SWISS, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia completing the top 20.

The report added however, that almost 50 airlines have just rating of three stars or less, and there are 10 airlines with only one star, including carriers from Indonesia, Nepal and Surinam.

This year AirlineRatings.com also published a list of the 20 safest low-cost carriers, which included Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, JetBlue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.

“Our top safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft,” said AirlineRatings.com’s editor, Geoffrey Thomas. “These airlines are always at the forefront for excellence in the safety space. However there is no question amongst the editors that Qantas remains a standout in safety enhancements and best practice.”

AirlineRatings.com’s ranking system takes into account a variety of factors, including independent audits and records of safety incidents and crashes.

And while 2015 appeared to be a bad year for aviation safety, with the high profile Germanwings and Metrojet crashes, data shows that the 16 accidents and 550 fatalities that occurred in 2015 were below the 10-year average of 31 accidents and 714 fatalities.