Air New Zealand, Qantas, Virgin Australia top ‘safest airlines’ list 

• But African airlines fail to register in top 25

Phillip Isakpa

A list of 25 airlines showing the world’s safest carriers released recently by AirlineRatings.com has put Air New Zealand, Qantas, an Australian airline, and Virgin Australia as the three safest airlines in the world.

The list also shows a disappointing position for Africa as none amongst the continent’s top carriers made the cut. Africans, particularly Nigerians, familiar with carriers from the Middle East, will find that their favourites, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, and Emirates Airlines are high up on the list at fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively.

AirlineRatings is a product rating review site which released two lists, ‘The 25 Safest Airlines For 2024’ and ‘The 20 Safest Low-Cost Airlines For 2024’ and it named Air New Zealand the safest airline overall.

Air New Zealand is based in Auckland and operates 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries.

“Air New Zealand operates in some of the most challenging weather environments which test pilot skills,” said Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com

The airline operates with state of the art aircraft on the back of its focus on the latest technology, according to information sourced by Business a.m.

Australian carrier Qantas, the only airline in the world that flies to all continents, is second on the list for 2024, a drop from first position as the safest airline last year.

The rest of the top ten safest airlines comprise Virgin Australia, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates, All Nippon Airways, Finnair, Cathay Pacific Airways and Alaska Airways.

British Airways, one of the world’s largest carriers, is the only British airline that is ranked on the list and it is ranked as the 15th safest airline of 2024.

But when it comes to the safest low-cost airlines for 2024, multiple British airlines are included in the list of the safest low-cost airlines.

For instance, easyJet and Ryanair in second and third places respectively, are part of the top ten safest low-cost airlines for 2024.

Hungary’s Wizz Air, which has a British subsidiary that was launched in 2018, made the list in fourth place.

Wizz Air operates flights from eight UK airports to nearly 90 countries across Europe and the Middle East.

British airlines such as Jet2, Virgin Airways and TUI did not make either of the lists.

The list of the world’s 25 safest airlines are as follows:

1. Air New Zealand; 2. Qantas; 3. Virgin Australia; 4. Etihad Airways; 5. Qatar Airways; 6. Emirates; 7. All Nippon Airways; 8. Finnair; 9. Cathay Pacific Airways; 10. Alaska Airlines; 11. SAS; 12. Korean Air; 13. Singapore Airlines; 14. EVA Air; 15. British Airways; 16. Turkish Airlines; 17. TAP Air Portugal; 18. Lufthansa/Swiss Group; 19. KLM; 20. Japan Airlines; 21. Hawaiian Airlines; 22. American Airlines; 23. Air France; 24. Air Canada Group; 25. United Airlines.