Nervous fliers may be interested to know that Qantas has been named the safest airline for the third year running.

According to AirlineRatings.com, which monitors 407 flight companies around the world, Qantas is the safest airline around. It has a fatality-free record in the jet era, which has been described as “extraordinary”.



The top twenty safest airlines include Emirates, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

The website rated airlines based on a number of things. It looked at audits run by aviation industry bodies, government reports, each airline’s fatality records, incident reports and company history, as well as how well they are run.

Those on a strict new year’s budget might be more interested in the safest low-cost airlines. They are (in alphabetical order): Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.

The website says that what sets these cheaper airlines apart is that they’ve all passed the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) - which really sounds like something all airlines should be required to do - and have excellent safety records.



The world’s airlines carried a record 3.6 billion passengers on 34 million flights in 2015. Making up the full top twenty in alphabetical order are:

Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.

Image: Javier Garcia/BPI/REX Shutterstock