AirlineRatings.com, the world’s only safety and product rating website has announced its top ten safest airlines and top ten safest low cost airlines for 2015 from the 449 different carriers which it regularly monitors.
AirlineRatings.com’s rating system takes into account a range of factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies such as the FAA and ICAO as well as government audits and the airline’s fatality record.
Top of the list again is Qantas which has a fatality free record in the jet era. Making up the remainder of the top ten in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific Airways, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.
AirlineRatings.com editors also identified their top ten safest low cost airlines. They are in alphabetical order: Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, Icelandair, Jetstar, Jetblue, Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly and Westjet. Unlike a number of low cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) audit and have excellent safety records.
Of the 449 airlines surveyed 149 have the top seven-star safety ranking, but almost 50 have just three stars or less. Five airlines only achieved one star for safety from AirlineRatings.com. These are: Agni Air, Kam Air, Nepal Airlines, Scat and Tara Air.
These safety ratings are given new meaning after 2014’s bizarre run of events. Malaysian Airlines’ two crashes last year (MH370 and MH17) were unprecedented in modern times and claimed 537 lives.
In total in 2014 there were 21 fatal accidents with 986 fatalities which was higher than the 10-year average. However the world’s airlines carried a record 3.3 billion passengers on 27 million flights.
In contrast, 50 years ago there were a staggering 87 crashes killing 1,597 when airlines only carried only 141 million passengers, a mere 5 per cent of today’s number. So despite the strangeness last year, airline safety is definitely a high priority.
