Nervous flyers, look away now.
The EU has a blacklist of airlines banned from its airspace. Those that make the notorious no-fly list – there are currently more than 100 airlines – are believed to have significant safety problems. The full list can be found here, but those to avoid include every airline from Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Nepal, and Zambia, plus many from Indonesia.
And the safest? Qantas has been named the safest airline for the fourth year running, in an annual survey of the world’s biggest airlines. Carried out by AirlineRatings.com, an independent plane safety and product rating website, it took into account the airline’s crash and serious incident reports, amongst other factors.
The world’s safest airline, according to AirlineRatings.com
- Qantas
The 19 other safest airlines (in alphabetical order)
- Air New Zealand
- Alaska Airlines
- All Nippon Airways
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Delta Air Lines
- Etihad Airways
- EVA Air
- Finnair
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Japan Airlines
- KLM
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian
- Singapore Airlines
- Swiss
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
The good news for us travellers: Stats from the Aviation Safety Network revealed that 2016 was the second safest year on record to take a flight, plus the number of crashes has shown a steady and persistent decline over the past two decades. And despite some recent high-profile crashes, such as the tragic LaMia accident in Colombia involving a Brazilian football team, aviation is still by far the safest way to travel.
