Travelling in 2020? These are the 20 safest airlines in the world

Nervous flyers can now sit back and relax as AirlineRatings.com has released its annual list of the safest airlines in the world.

Once again, Australia’s national carrier Qantas is the best choice when it comes to safety — it’s held the crown every year since 2014. The popular airline beat out 405 other airlines that were also in consideration for the coveted title.

After almost a century in the industry, Qantas has built a trusted reputation due to its almost perfect safety record with no fatalities in the jet era and no fatal crashes since 1951.

AirlineRatings editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas said Qantas was a standout.

“For instance, Australia’s Qantas has been recognised by the British Advertising Standards Association in a test case as the world’s most experienced airline,” he said.

“Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the jet era. But Qantas is not alone. Long established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair have perfect records in the jet era.”

Other winning airlines included Air New Zealand, Taiwan-based carrier EVA Air and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, coming in second, third and fourth respectively. Qatar Airways rounded out the top five most safest airlines.

Big name brands like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Virgin Australia made the top 10. Other airlines included Alaska Airlines and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways.

Lesser-known names like Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, TAP Portugal, Scandinavian Airlines and Royal Jordanian rounded out the top 15. Meanwhile, Swiss, Finnair, Lufthansa (the largest carrier in Germany), Ireland’s Aer Lingus and Netherlands-based carrier KLM also made the cut.

According to Thomas, the site only looks at serious incidents when tallying up the final scores.

“All airlines have incidents every day, and many are aircraft or engine manufacture issues, not airline operational problems,” he said. “And it’s the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one.

“So just lumping all incidents together is very misleading. Our top 20 safest airlines 2020 are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.”

Due to public demand, the editors of AirlineRatings.com also ranked the ten safest low-cost airlines which included Air Arabia, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, IndiGo, Jetblue, Volaris, Vueling, Westjet and Wizz.