The world’s safest (and least safe) airlines

Etihad has been named the safest airline on the planet in an annual ranking - Getty

How much does the average passenger think about airline safety? Truth be told, most of us try our hardest not to think about the worst-case scenarios, but that isn’t always easy – particularly when tragedies hit the headlines.

Last year’s Air India crash, in which 241 people were killed on a flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, was the worst civilian aviation disaster in more than a decade. Prior to that, there was Jeju Air Flight 8423 at the end of 2024, in which 175 passengers and four crew members were killed.

While these kinds of incidents tend to leave a mark on the public consciousness, the overall message on air travel from authorities remains the same as it has been for decades: flying is significantly safer than driving, with the chances of any kind of accident vanishingly small.

That doesn’t mean that passengers don’t worry. After the well-publicised issues with the Boeing 737 Max in 2018 and 2019, one survey revealed that 20 per cent of travellers wanted to know what plane their airline used before booking flights (a phenomenon summarised by some internet users as “if it’s Boeing, I’m not going.”).

Will anything make nervous passengers less jittery? The annual report from AirlineRatings.com takes stock of the publicly available data to rank the world’s safest airlines. But what does it have to say in its latest report?

The wreckage of Air India Flight 171 - AFP

How do you measure airline safety?

Leaving aside the obvious headlines like the Air India crash, there is no obvious metric for measuring airline safety per se – although AirlineRatings.com has tried its best on that front.

The company says that its ratings are based on input from aviation experts and take into account various factors, ranging from the dramatic (reported incidents) to the more technical (like the age of the fleet and the airline’s pilot training processes).

While the report gives a ranking to 385 different airlines, it doesn’t go into full detail about the underlying data it uses. It also warns against placing too much emphasis on headline-grabbing crashes, given that these are often caused by freak technical failures (or in the case of Air India, a suspected pilot murder-suicide) rather than decisions taken by the airline.

Similarly, many of the “incidents” recorded by airlines will cover a wide range of different scenarios, most of which probably aren’t the sort of things that nervous travellers necessarily worry about. But the more of these small incidents that airlines rack up, the more it will show in their safety rating.

How reliable are these rankings?

As you might expect, some experts take issue with the idea of ranking airlines in this way, given that each carrier will operate in different regions and conditions.

“Some of the highest placed airlines operate to very few destinations, all of which are highly-developed countries,” says Nick Eades, a veteran Boeing 747 captain turned author. “By contrast, airlines flying to less developed regions may encounter more issues, even if most of these are very minor.”

He also takes issue with the idea that the age of an airline’s fleet is necessarily an indicator of its safety record.

“As long as the aircraft are meticulously maintained then they are just as safe as new aircraft,” he says. “Some may even argue that they are safer as any design or manufacturing defects would have been discovered and rectified.”

Which are the safest airlines (according to the report)?

AirlineRatings.com publishes two separate rankings: one for full-service carriers like British Airways and one for low-cost short-haul airlines.

When it comes to full-service airlines, the top spots go to Etihad (in first place), followed by Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Air New Zealand. British Airways comes in 18th place, down from 15th last year, just above Vietnam Airlines.

For the low-cost carriers, the safest airline is Hong Kong-based HK Express, followed by Jetstar Airways and Scoot. Ryanair is in 18th place (down 15 places from last year), with Wizz Air in ninth and easyJet in fifth.

Which are the worst airlines for safety?

While AirlineRatings.com doesn’t publish rankings for those airlines that don’t make the top 25, its website does include star ratings for different carriers, with 11 current operators ending up with the lowest ranking of one star.

They include Korea’s Jeju Air (the airline which suffered the tragic crash in December 2o24), as well as airlines from Montenegro (Montenegro Airlines), Pakistan (PIA), Tanzania (Precision Air), Bangladesh (US-Bangla), Nigeria (Air Peace), as well as five carriers from Russia (including the national carrier Aeroflot).

b''

For a more comprehensive picture of airline safety, we can also look at the airlines included on the UK Air Safety List and thus banned from flying to or from Britain. The list currently includes carriers from 23 countries, including Armenia, Libya, Nepal, North Korea, Russia, Sudan and Venezuela.

In many cases, the classification is largely hypothetical, given that there is little chance of a Libyan or North Korean carrier launching direct flights from Heathrow to Tripoli or Pyongyang. But it still sends a strong signal to anyone considering flying with those airlines.

Even so, it’s worth noting that in many cases the listing isn’t down to any decisions made by the individual airline. It’s usually that UK or EU authorities aren’t convinced that the national regulators in question have the correct procedures in place to uphold safety standards – for example, having an independent aviation safety board.

“A strong regulatory framework is the bedrock of airline safety,” says aviation expert John Strickland of JLS Consulting. “There are so many variables influencing safety that it is really difficult to produce a meaningful list of best or worst carriers.”

Are certain planes unsafe?

Historically, some planes have had safety issues – like the de Havilland Comet in the 1950s. As you might expect, these models tended to be either withdrawn from service entirely or suspended for extensive maintenance.

It was a similar story with the Boeing 737 Max, which was grounded for almost two years until it was cleared by US regulators to fly again (subject to mandated design changes). Canadian, European and Chinese authorities soon followed suit, allowing the updated planes to take to the sky again.

Of course, it’s up to aviation authorities to ensure those procedures are followed, which can lead to some gaps. In 2024, the US National Transportation Safety Board warned that up to 40 foreign airlines may still be using the Boeing 737 Max with components that could be unsafe. It did not, however, name any airlines about which it had doubts.

Aeroplane manufacturers also look to make safety improvements each time they design a new plane. To give a recent example, the latest models from Boeing and Airbus (the 787-9 and the A350 respectively) have undergone numerous tweaks to minimise the impact of turbulence – such as installing more flexible wings.

While turbulence isn’t usually a cause of serious safety issues, more severe cases have been known to cause injuries. Two years ago, one passenger died and a further 71 were injured after a Singapore Airlines flight from London experienced an extreme bout of turbulence.

Worryingly, there are indications that certain types of turbulence – notably clear air turbulence – is becoming a more common problem for airlines. The boss of Emirates, Sir Tim Clark, believes there has been a rise in these kinds of patterns, which some researchers have attributed in part to climate change.

What can airlines do to improve safety?

In most cases, the factors that affect airline safety – like regular maintenance of aircraft – are set by aviation authorities, which enforce strict rules on how often carriers need to perform checks on their planes. But airlines still make some decisions to reduce risk even further.

After the safety issues with Boeing in 2018 and 2019, Ryanair increased the scrutiny it performs on its Boeing planes. Any new deliveries are sent to the  airline’s maintenance facilities in Dublin where they undergo extensive checks by the carrier’s own engineers before entering service.

Some airlines are also implementing new policies to deal with more extreme turbulence. In Asia, some airlines have decided to suspend all meal and drinks services when the seatbelt signs are turned on.

They hope this will reduce the potential for nasty accidents, where passengers have been hit by flying glassware or scalded with hot drinks.

This article was first published in January 2025 and has been revised and updated.

Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.