AviationOutlook
Australia’s Qantas is the world’s safest airline in 2019. In its 98 year history, Qantas has maintained an extraordinary record in the modern jet era. The airline’s emphasis on using the latest technologies to monitor and maintain its aircraft fleet, engines as well as investment towards latest navigation, communication, monitoring and landing systems has resulted into an impeccable safety track record.
Airline Safety Rating
AirlineRatings conducts an annual suirvey of 405 airlines around the world and announces this list of world’s safest airlines.
So, what is the criteria for this airline safety rating?
The rating is actually based on a multitude of factors including the audit from various aviation governing bodies and associations, government audits, and also based on the airline’s crash and fatality records, and aircraft fleet age among others.
Basically, AirlineRatings follows these safety assessment criteria:
- IOSA or ISSA certification:
- European Union (EU) blacklist
- Airline’s fatality record
- Airline’s FAA endorsement
- ICAO safety parameters
- Audit from aviation safety authorities (respective country of origin)
- Aircraft fleet (Russian built?)
If an airline meets all these criteria, the airline could potentially earn seven stars. IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certification assesses the operational management and control systems of an airline and is recognized internationally. ISSA is also similar to IOSA, the only difference being that ISSA certification is designed considering the small regional airlines in mind. If an airline passes both IOSA or ISSA certification, it qualifies for two stars.
If an airline is blacklisted by EU, it loses one point. EU blacklists airlines from flying into European airspace if it is not satisfied with the airline’s operational and aircraft maintenance practices leading to accidents.
Similarly, in the US, the FAA has the authority to blacklist a country (not airlines) from flying into the US airspace. If the FAA is not satisfied with a country’s conduct towards maintaining international aviation standards, including aircraft operations and maintenance, then the country will be blacklisted and all the airlines from that country are prohibited to enter the US airspace.
Similarly, ICAO also has its own set of safety parameters. The airlines can gain or lose points based on whether its country of origin meets these ICAO safety parameters. If country of origin meets:
- All eight ICAO safety parameters: +2 stars,
- Five to seven parameters: +1 star,
- Less than 5 parameters met: 0 star
However, the safety assessment criteria based on the operational fleet of aircraft is quite strange. An airline loses one star if it operates only the Russian built aircraft.
This safety assessment criteria might have been enforced because of the poor safety records of the Russian built aircraft such as LET410, Antonov An-12, and CASA C-212 in the past. These aircraft had multiple fatal accidents in the last decade.
Many airlines in Brazil, Czech Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Honduras, Hungary, Philippines, and Russia still have operational fleet of Russian built aircraft.
Top 20 Safest Airlines 2019
The top twenty safest airlines in 2019 are as follows:
| Airline | Country |
|---|---|
| Qantas Virgin Group of Airlines | Australia Australia / Atlantic |
| Air New Zealand | New Zealand |
| Alaska Airlines American Airlines Hawaiian Airlines United Airlines | US |
| All Nippon Airways | Japan |
| Austrian Airlines | Austria |
| British Airways | UK |
| Cathay Pacific Airways | Hong Kong (China) |
| Emirates | UAE |
| EVA Air | Taiwan |
| Finnair | Finland |
| KLM | Netherlands |
| Lufthansa | Germany |
| Qatar Airways | Qatar |
| SAS (Scandinavian Airline System) | Sweden, Norway, Denmark |
| Singapore Airlines | Singapore |
| Swiss | Switzerland |
Note: The list of airlines are not in the order of ranking.
Top 10 Safest Low Cost Airlines 2019
The top ten safest low cost airlines in 2019 are:
| Airline | Country |
|---|---|
| Flybe Thomas Cook | UK |
| Frontier Jetblue | US |
| HK Express | Hong Kong (China) |
| Jetstar | Australia / Asia |
| Volaris | Mexico |
| Vueling | Spain |
| Westjet | Canada |
| Wizz | Hungary |
Note: The list of airlines are not in the order of ranking.
Low Cost Airline
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