The Lion City tops once again. This time Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been included among the 20 safest airlines in the world for 2018 setting a new standard in safety parameters. This has been revealed by the aviation analysis website airlineratings.com.
Singapore Airlines was also included in the top 20 in 2016 and 2017.
The world’s 20 safest airlines in alphabetical order include Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System, Swiss, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of airlineratings.com said, “These airlines are standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft.”
He added, “For instance, Australia’s Qantas has been recognized by the British Advertising Standards Association in a test case as the world’s most experienced airline. Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the jet era. But Qantas is not alone. Long established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair have perfect records in the jet era.”
The website has also identified ten budget carriers which are the safest low-cost airlines including Aer Lingus, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling, and Westjet.
To arrive at the top 20 safest airlines, the aviation analysis website considers the most important factors for safety including audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations; government audits; airline’s crash and serious incident record and the fleet age.
Thomas said, “All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems … It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one.”
He added, “Our top 20 safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.”
The website airline ratings was launched in June 2013 and rates the safety and in-flight product of 409 airlines using its unique seven-star rating system. It has been used by millions of passengers from 232 countries and has become the industry standard for safety and product rating.