World’s safest airlines 2017: Qantas tops the list for fourth time in a row

Qantas Airways Limited has topped the list of world’s safest airlines in 2017. The flag carrier airline of Australia has won the title for the fourth consecutive year. Virgin Australia has also made it to the top 20 list.

In the wake of Quantas’ “extraordinary” fatality-free record, Airlineratings.com has named it as one of the safest airlines in the world for 2017. Along with that, the website has also released the names of 19 other safe airlines for the year (not ranked numerically). The list also includes Virgin Australia.

Other airlines that have made it to the list (in alphabetical order)

• Air New Zealand
• Alaska Airlines
• All Nippon Airways
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific Airways
• Delta Air Lines
• Etihad Airways
• EVA Air
• Finnair
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Japan Airlines
• KLM
• Lufthansa
• Scandinavian Airline System
• Singapore Airlines
• Swiss
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Australia

Top 10 safest low-cost airlines

On public demand, the website has also released a list of top 10 safest low-cost airlines for 2017. The list includes Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Jetstar Asia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling and Westjet.

Selection process

According to the website, the world’s safest airlines have been selected on the basis of government audits, lead associations’ audits, airline crash history, serious incident record, profitability as well as fleet age.

It surveyed 425 airlines; out of which 148 were categorised under top seven-star safety ranking. Fifty were found to qualify for three-star or less than three-star ratings while 14 were given only one star rating. The 14 airlines with one-star rating belonged to Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nepal and Surinam.

Standout safety measures

“Our top 20 safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of more advanced aircraft like the A350, 787 and 777X,” said Geoffrey Thomas, the editor of Airlineratings.com, which was launched in 2013.

Thomas added that Qantas leads the list because of its safety enhancement features as well as operational excellence. He said that the airline has made an amazing record in terms of its safety as well as operations in over 96 years.

Apart from being world’s safest airline for 2017, Qantas is also accepted as the most experienced airline in the world. “Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years,” he added.

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