Overview
2024 will be a year of many things, including the year that hitting the skies Down Under means travelling on the three safest airlines in the world. As it does every January, safety and rating website AirlineRatings.com has released its latest ranking of the best carriers to fly with. Coming out on top: Air New Zealand, closely followed by Qantas and Virgin Australia.
Air NZ returned to first place after also doing the honours in 2022, taking over from 2023 winner Qantas. The latter has a long history of topping the list, doing so for eight years in a row from 2014–21. Virgin Australia has also proven a mainstay on the full rundowns each year, with the top 25 carriers named in 2024.
"Our top 25 safest airlines are all standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation and launching of new aircraft. In fact, the safety margins between these top 25 airlines are very small," said AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas.
"Between Air New Zealand and Qantas there is only 1.5 points. It's incredibly close."
Wondering how Air NZ topped the list, then? The website called out the airline's "firm focus on safety", while also advising that it "has excelled across a broad safety spectrum right down to the smallest detail, and its pilots operate in some very challenging environments".
The highly sought-after accolade chose its safest airlines for 2024 from a pool of 385 carriers from around the world. Factors that influence a carrier's placement on the list include crash and incident records, safety initiatives, fleet age, profitability, training assessments for expert pilots, and audits by aviation governing bodies, industry bodies and governments.
Bird strikes and turbulence injuries aren't take into consideration, however, and neither are weather diversions and lightning strikes, given that airlines have no control over these issues.
If you're a budget-conscious flyer, the website also outlines the 20 safest low-cost airlines. The winner this year also came from Down Under, with Jetstar emerging victorious.
TOP 25 SAFEST AIRLINES FOR 2024:
Air New Zealand
Qantas
Virgin Australia
Etihad Airways
Qatar Airways
Emirates
All Nippon Airways
Finnair
Cathay Pacific Airways
Alaska Airlines
SAS
Korean Air
Singapore Airlines
EVA Air
British Airways
Turkish Airlines
TAP Air Portugal
Lufthansa/Swiss Group
KLM
Japan Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
American Airlines
Air France
Air Canada Group
United Airlines
TOP 20 SAFEST LOW-COST AIRLINES FOR 2024:
Jetstar
easyJet
Ryanair
Wizz
Norwegian
Frontier
Vueling
Vietjet
Southwest
Volaris
flyduba
AirAsia Group (AirAsia, AirAsia X, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia India)
Cebu Pacific
Sun Country
Spirit
Westjet
JetBlue
Air Arabia
Indigo
Eurowings
For the full AirlineRatings.com list, visit the airline safety and product rating review outfit's website.