Aer Lingus has been named as one of the world’s safest airlines for 2017 according to the travel website AirlineRatings.com, which classified the Irish carrier as one of its top 10 low-cost companies. Australian national carrier Qantas was, for the fourth year in a row, named the safest of the 425 surveyed.
The Australian airline, now operating for 96 years, has a “fatality free record in the jet era – an extraordinary record,” according to the website.
AirlineRatings’ top 20 airlines worldwide, listed in alphabetical order, includes: 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 and Virgin Australia.
For its low-cost flyers, limited to only 10, the alphabetical list comprises: Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Jetstar Asia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling and Westjet.
“Unlike a number of low-cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operation Safety Audit (IOSA), which has over 1,000 audit items and have excellent safety records,” the website reports.
According to their research, 148 of the 425 airlines surveyed have the maximum seven-star safety rating, although almost 50 of them have three stars or fewer. Fourteen airlines come with a one-star rating, considered some of the least safe in the world. These airlines are registered in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nepal, and Surinam.
Despite high-profile fatal accidents in 2016, AirlineRatings reports that the number of passenger jet crashes has steadily declined since the 1990s. According to the statistics – counting crashes of civilian aircraft carrying at least 14 passengers – 2016 was the second safest year for air travel since records began.
According to the Dutch-based Aviation Safety Network, that now means that the odds of being on a fatal passenger flight are now one per 3.2m.
