Top 20 safest Airlines and low-cost carriers revealed - find out how safe yours is with new interactive tool

Air travel is one of the safest forms of mass transportation, but not all airlines are equal when it comes to safety records. Here we take a look at the safest airlines as released in a new study from the experts at AirlineRatings.com.

The list covers the safest airlines going into 2023, with the study looking at 385 airlines that are leaders in safety, innovation and launching new aircraft into the skies.

What airlines have the best safety record? Find out with this top 20 list.  (Credit: Pxhere.com)

How are the safest airlines judged?

When it comes to creating the list of the safest airlines, the researchers based their ratings on a number of variables. These include how many crashes each airline has had over the past five years, along with other serious incidents over the past two years.

Alongside how many crashes and incidents the airlines have experienced in recent times, the study takes into account the age of the carrier’s fleet of aircraft – with new planes offering better protection against accidents.

Other factors including training, Covid policies and information from official bodies are also taken into account. The full list of factors in the ratings are as follows.

• crashes over five years
• serious incidents over two years
• audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations
• fleet age
• expert analysis of pilot training
• Covid-19 protocols

What are the safest airlines in the world?

According to the research from AirlineRatings.com, the top 20 airlines are as follows:

The top 20 safest airlines 2023

1. Qantas
2. Air New Zealand
3. Etihad Airways
4. Qatar Airways
5. Singapore Airlines
6. TAP Air Portugal
7. Emirates
8. Alaska Airlines
9. EVA Air
10. Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic
11. Cathay Pacific Airways
12. Hawaiian Airlines
13. SAS
14. United Airlines
15. Lufthansa/Swiss Group
16. Finnair
17. British Airways
18. KLM
19. American Airlines
20. Delta Air Lines.

The safest low-cost airlines for 2022

Alongside the main list of airlines, AirlineRatings.com has included an alphabetical list of the safest low-cost airlines such as easyJet and WizzAir that many British travellers will be looking to book with as the cost-of-living crisis cuts into holiday and business budgets.

The list of low-cost airlines is created using variables including incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the governing body of aviation, The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), EU banned lists and fleet age.

Top 20 safest low cost airlines in alphabetical order

• Air Arabia
• AirAsia Group* 
• Allegiant
• Air Baltic
• Easyjet
• FlyDubai
• Frontier
• Jetstar Group
• Jetblue
• Indigo
• Ryanair
• Scoot
• Southwest
• Spicejet
• Spirit
• Vueling
• Vietjet
• Volaris
• Westjet

*AirAsia, AirAsia X, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines and AirAisa India.

Find out how safe your airline is

If you want to find out information such as if your airline is fatality-free and how Covid-compliant your airline is, airline ratings has a searchable interactive tool to help reveal such information.

Check how safe your airline is here with this safety rating tool.

 

 

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