Air New Zealand loses the title of safest airline in the world

Air New Zealand loses the title of safest airline in the world

Air New Zealand has been knocked out of first place in the annual list of the world’s safest airlines.

The The flag carrier topped airlineratings.com’s poll of 385 airlines last year but drops to second place this time out, losing “by the best of margins” to Tasman rivals Qantas.

The ratings are constructed using a range of factors, including serious incidents, airline audits, safety initiatives and age of the fleet.

Qantas fell to seventh in last year’s poll after a safety incident at Perth Airport, with a near miss between two planes during takeoff.

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However, the Australian airline claimed the title which it has won several times since the start of the ranking in 2013.

Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com, said that “all airlines have incidents every day, and many of them are aircraft or engine manufacturing problems, not airline operational problems. It is the flight crew’s handling of these incidents that separates a good airline from an unsafe one.”

“Our Top 20 safest airlines are all industry luminaries and are at the forefront of safety, innovation and new aircraft launches. In fact, the safety margins between these top 20 airlines are very slim, they are all excellent airlines.”

Air New Zealand topped airlineratings.com's poll of 385 airlines last year.

Jericho Rock-Archer/Stuff

Air New Zealand topped airlineratings.com’s poll of 385 airlines last year.

A separate unranked list of the world’s safest low-cost airlines includes Jetstar and AirAsia.

Although the ranking does not list the least safe airlines, the airlines with only one star are Nepal Airlines, Airblue (Pakistan), Scat (Kazakhstan), Iran Aseman Airlines, Sriwijaya Air (Indonesia), Blue Wing (Suriname), Pakistan International Airlines and Air Algerie (Algeria).

Top 20 safest airlines for 2023

  1. Quantas
  2. Air New Zealand
  3. Etihad Airways
  4. Qatar Airways
  5. Singapore Airlines
  6. TAP AirPortugal
  7. Emirates
  8. Alaska airlines
  9. EVA air
  10. Virgin Australia/Atlantic Ocean
  11. Cathay Pacific Airways
  12. Hawaiian airlines
  13. SAS
  14. United Airlines
  15. Lufthansa/Swiss Group
  16. finnair
  17. British Airways
  18. KLM
  19. US airlines
  20. Delta Airlines

Top 20 safest low cost airlines for 2023

*In alphabetic order

  • Air Arabia
  • Air Asia
  • fidelity
  • Air Baltic Sea
  • easyjet
  • FlyDubai
  • Border
  • jetstar
  • Jet blue
  • Indigo
  • Ryanair
  • Scoot
  • Southwest
  • spicejet
  • Spirit
  • Vueling
  • Vietjet
  • you are going to fly
  • Westjet
  • Wizz