World’s Safest Airlines: Oceania Carriers Took Top Spots in 2020

Global EAT - World's Safest Airlines: Oceania Carriers Took Top Spots in 2020
Qantas tested the world's longest passenger flight in November 2019. The 19 hours and 19 minutes Sydney-London flight covered 17,800 kilometres (around 11,060 miles). The carrier hopes to feature the route in its regular schedule by 2022 or 2023. (skeeze/pixabay)

The world’s safest airlines report is out. Qantas Airways and Air New Zealand captured top spots with their safety records

In a surprise move, Taiwan based carrier, EVA Air came in third, beating notable carriers, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways.

All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways and United Airlines made the 2019 top 20 world’s safest airlines list but not the 2020 list.

The Top 20 Safest Airlines 2020 were chosen from 405 different airlines that AirlinesRatings.com monitors.

AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas is quoted saying, “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.”

Qantas, said Thomas “has been recognized by the British Advertising Standards Association in a test case as the world’s most experienced airline.”

On the non-fatality list are also long established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair, he added.

Top 20 Safest International Airlines in Numerical Order

  1. Qantas
  2. Air New Zealand
  3. EVA Air
  4. Etihad
  5. Qatar Airways
  6. Singapore Airlines
  7. Emirates
  8. Alaska Airlines
  9. Cathay Pacific Airways
  10. Virgin Australia
  11. Hawaiian Airlines
  12. Virgin Atlantic Airlines
  13. TAP Portugal
  14. Scandinavian Airline System
  15. Royal Jordanian
  16. Swiss Air
  17. Finnair
  18. Lufthansa
  19. Aer Lingus
  20. KLM

Related: The World’s 10 Most Punctual Airlines and Airports: Latin Carriers Scoring High

Ten Safest Low Cost Carriers in Alphabetical Order

  1. Air Arabia
  2. Flybe
  3. Frontier
  4. HK Express
  5. IndieGo
  6. Volaris
  7. Vueling
  8. WestJet
  9. Wizz

Lowest Ranked Airlines in Alphabetical Order

  1. Ariana Afghan Airlines
  2. Bluewing Airlines
  3. Kam Air
  4. Trigana Air Service

AirlineRatings.com evaluation is based on factors including: audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies; government audits; airline’s crash and serious incident record; profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives, and fleet age.