Emirates and Etihad among world’s safest airlines
Ratings site surveyed more than 400 airlines to pick top 20 safest operators for 2016
Two major Gulf carriers, Emirates and Etihad Airways, have been named among the world’s top 20 safest airlines for 2016.
Airlineratings.com, which surveyed 407 airlines, picked Australia’s Qantas as the world’s safest airline to fly in. Holding the top spot for the third year running, Qantas has never had a fatal jet airliner accident.
Making up the remainder of the top 20 in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
The rating website said it does not numerically rank its safest airlines as “they are so close in operational safety”, but it does pick out “one overall standout airline”.
“However, there is no question that Qantas remains a standout in safety enhancements and best practice,” said Geoffrey Thomas of airlineratings.com.
The recent years have seen a number of aviation accidents involving the Malaysian Airlines, GermanWings and Metrojet, leaving many passengers wary of air travel. However, there has been a decline in the number of fatal accidents.
Quoting Aviation-safety.net data, Airline Ratings said the 16 accidents recorded in 2015 with 560 fatalities were below the 10-year average of 31 accidents and 714 fatalities. “Last year was also a significant improvement over 2014 when there were 21 fatal accidents with 986 fatalities.”
The site looked at a number of indicators to come up with the list, including operational history, incident records and operational excellence of each airline. It also took into account several factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations, and government audits and crash records.
Airline Ratings also identified the top ten safest low-cost carriers in the world and these are in alphabetical order: Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.
Etihad is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, serving the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America routes. Among its major strengths include its “award winning in-flight product in all classes” and the availability of nannies on board to assist passengers with children on long haul flights.
Emirates, another fastgrowing carrier in the Gulf, operates more than 170 aircraft to over 120 destinations. It is one of only a few airlines that have a fleet of wide bodied aircraft.
Its in-flight entertainment system and “consistency and quality of in-flight product” are considered some of its major strengths, according to Airline Ratings.