2015 was a good year for flying, with a smaller-than-average number of incidents and fatalities
AirlineRetings.com has announced its list with the world’s safest airlines for 2016. The website launched in 2013 monitors 407 flight companies rating their products and safety.
In the top of the list stays Quantas, as every year from the launching of the website. Quantas has a fatality free record which makes it be considered the safest. The other companies in top twenty, in random order, are: Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, Scandinavian Airline System, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, KLM, Etihad Airways, Japan Airlines, EVA Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Finnair and American Airlines.
To select the top twenty safest companies the editorial team from AirlineRatings.com has examined several factors, from audits of the governments and of aviation’s governing bodies to fatality records, operational history and excellence and incident records.
Responding to public requests the website has also rated the top ten safest low-cost companies. In random order, they are: Westjet, Volaris, Aer Lingus, Virgin America, TUI Fly, Thomas Cook, HK Express, Jetstar Australia and Jetblue.
All of the low cost airlines from the top ten have passed the international safety audit IOSA and they all have very exceptional safety records.
From the 407 airlines reviewed 148 got the maximum, seven star safety ranking. However about 50 airlines have only got three or less stars with 10 carriers only having one star. All of the very insecure airlines are from Surinam, Nepal and Indonesia.
Qantas has been selected since it is the oldest airline to continuously operate flights, with a history of 95 years. The company has been a pioneer in its domain regarding many operations and safety practices. It is globally known as the most experienced airline company in the world.
The airline has been an innovator, developing the FANS- Future Air Navigation Systems, the Flight Data Recorder, automatic landings with the help of the Global Navigation System of Satellite and many other safety procedures and devices.
Last year more than 3.6 billion passengers embarked on over 34 million flights. Even if it has been an year marked by two major disasters – GermanWings and Metrojet and other 14 smaller accidents resulting in 460 fatalities, 2015 was below last decade’s average of 31 accidents with 714 fatalities per year. It was even below 2014 when 21 fatal accidents have happened resulting in 986 fatalities.
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