Air New Zealand has beaten out last year’s title holder Qantas to be crowned the world’s safest airline for 2024.
The flying kangaroo dropped to second spot in the rankings released this week by AirlineRatings.com, which is “the world’s only safety and product rating website”.
Virgin Australia rounded out the top three, followed by Etihad, Qatar Airways, Emirates, ANA, Finnair, Cathay Pacific and Alaska Airlines.
AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas said it was an “incredibly close” contest between Air New Zealand and Qantas for the top spot.
The safety rating margin between the two airlines as judged by AirlineRatings.com editors came in at 1.5 points.
Air New Zealand was noted for its “firm focus on safety and its customers and has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail”.
“The airline operates in some of the most challenging weather environments which test pilot skills,” Mr Thomas said.
“For instance, Wellington is one of the most windy airports in the world, while Queenstown is a huge navigation challenge.”
The ratings factor in industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment, fleet age, serious incidents, recent fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, and profitability.
Rounding out the list of the top 25 safest airlines with a fleet of more than 50 jet aircraft were 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 and United Airlines.
Jetstar was awarded the title of safest low-cost airline, followed by easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Norwegian, Frontier, Vueling, Vietjet, Southwest, Volaris and flydubai.
Mr Thomas said while the Qantas Group, which includes Jetstar, attracted bad press for disruptions and flight cancellations “the issues that impacted the airline group and its competitors were global and not confined to Australia”.
“The global airline industry was battered during COVID and it is taking several years to recover with staff shortages, COVID illness and spare parts shortages playing havoc with airlines,” he said.
In June last year, Qantas dropped to 17th position in the latest Skytrax world airlines awards based on passenger satisfaction surveys, after placing fifth in 2022.
The airline also lost the title of best airline in Australia/Pacific to its codeshare partner Fiji Airways.
(SKY NEWS)
