(CNN) — There’s never been a safer time to hop on a plane.
There are a number of factors contributing to this success, including the development of new technology and new airplanes, and changes to flight crew training and global regulations.
‘Best of the best’
Of the 409 airlines it monitors, 20 stand out as the “best of the best,” says AirlineRatings.com’s editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas.
These 20 airlines from across Asia, Europe and the United States, he says, are “always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft.”
From 2014 to 2017, AirlineRatings.com named Australian airline Qantas the world’s safest airline, and once again AirlineRatings.com has commended it for being “the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years” without a single fatality in the jet era.
“But Qantas is not alone,” says Thomas. “Long-established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair have perfect records in the jet era.”
Standout in safety
This year, AirlineRatings.com has decided to honor the top 20 airlines on equal footing.
The top 20 for 2018, in alphabetical order are:
Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
New entries on this year’s list are Dubai-based Emirates and China’s Hainan Airlines.
Response to incidents
To arrive at its top 20, AirlineRatings.com takes into account safety factors including audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations, government audits, airlines’ records of crashes and serious incidents and fleet age.
Thomas says it only looks at serious incidents when making its determinations.
“All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems, he says. “And it is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one.”
He cites Qantas’ excellent response to a 2010 incident in Singapore when a Rolls Royce engine shattered after an A380 took off.
“The fault was entirely with a fault in manufacture but the pilot skills of the Qantas crew saved the plane according to Australia’s crash investigators,” says Thomas.
Best low-cost carriers
World’s safest low-cost airlines: Aviation analysis site AirlineRatings.com has announced its annual list of the world’s safest low-cost airlines. Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national flag carrier, leads the alphabetical top 10.
PAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images
AirlineRatings.com has also announced the low-cost airlines it says have the best safety records.
In alphabetical order, the top 10 airlines are:
Aer Lingus, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, JetBlue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling and WestJet.
These airlines all have excellent safety records and, unlike a number of low-cost carriers, they have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).
Colorado’s Frontier Airlines is a new entry on the 2018 list, taking a slot vacated by Singapore’s Jetstar Asia.
“Certainly, air travel is safer today than at any time in history but passengers still need to know which are the best of the best,” says Thomas.
AirlineRatings.com ranks the airlines using a unique seven-star rating system. The top airlines have all achieved the full seven stars.
Chris Isidore and Jon Ostrower contributed to this report.
