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World’s safest (and least safe) airlines for 2023: Qantas reclaims top spot in global list
Jetstar was named among the world's safest budget carriers.Credit: Jason South
Qantas has reclaimed its title of the world's safest airline in this year's rankings, with two Australian carriers featuring in the global top 10.
The Flying Kangaroo beat more than 384 carriers across the globe to take back its number one spot, after briefly dropping to seventh place last year in the wake of a serious mishap.
The Australian airline has consistently ranked highly in the global list by airline safety and product review website AirlineRatings.com, taking the number one spot from 2014 to 2017, then again from 2019 to 2020.
In fact, Qantas has only lost its top spot twice in recent times: once in 2018, when AirlineRatings.com ranked its top 20 equally, then again in 2022, when it fell six places following a safety incident at Perth Airport, involving a near miss between two aircraft during takeoff.
According to AirlineRatings.com, Qantas overthrew last year's winner Air New Zealand by the narrowest of margins.
Virgin Australia retained its equal 10th place alongside Virgin Atlantic. (Scroll to the end for a full list of the top 20 airlines.)
AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas praised all 20 airlines for being at the forefront of safety, innovation, and for launching new aircraft.
"The safety margins between these top 20 airlines are very small, they are all outstanding airlines," said Thomas.
Qantas was singled out by the website for amassing an expansive record of firsts in operations and safety over the course of its 100-year operational history.
Rico Merkert, an aviation expert at the University of Sydney, said the news is an encouraging result, following a year plagued with operational issues and record poor performance.
"Whenever I have worked with any Australian airline, safety has always been their highest priority and in fact part of their brand, as is the case for Qantas. So it is nice to see them being rewarded for their efforts," said Merkert.
AirlineRatings.com also named the top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2023, in response to public interest, with Jetstar named among the safest budget carriers, alongside Scoot and AirAsia. (See the full list below.)
While AirlineRatings.com does not officially release rankings for the least-safe airlines, the following carriers featured at the bottom of the list with one-star rankings: Nepal Airlines (Nepal), Airblue (Pakistan), Sriwijaya Air (Indonesia), Blue Wing (Suriname), Pakistan International Airlines and Air Algerie (Algeria).
The safety rating rankings come as global aviation analytics firm Cirium releases its annual list of the year's top 10 most punctual airlines. Brazil's Azul Airlines topped the 2022 list for punctuality, followed by ANA, JAL, LATAM Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Australian carriers were absent from this year's list, in the wake of one of the aviation industry's worst years for performance.
Merkert noted a number of factors that contributed to Australian airlines not featuring in the rankings, including global supply chain bottlenecks that delayed delivery of aircraft spare parts, significant staffing and training challenges in the wake of unanticipated demand, and a new wave of COVID-19.
"Much of [the staffing issue] was compounded by Omicron which hit all parts of the Australian aviation supply chain at the same time," said Merkert. "Scheduling was nearly impossible for airlines at that time as people frequently called in sick at short notice, and airports, ground handling, and security found it difficult to operate back then, too."
Australian airlines had their worst month on record for domestic on-time performance (OTP) and cancellations in July, according to data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE). International OTP data was not available for Australian airlines.
Top 20 safest airlines for 2023
- Qantas
- Air New Zealand
- Etihad Airways
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Emirates
- Alaska Airlines
- EVA Air
- Virgin Australia/Atlantic
- Cathay Pacific Airways
- Hawaiian Airlines
- SAS
- United Airlines
- Lufthansa/Swiss Group
- Finnair
- British Airways
- KLM
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
Top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2023
*In alphabetical order
- Air Arabia
- AirAsia
- Allegiant
- Air Baltic
- Easyjet
- FlyDubai
- Frontier
- Jetstar
- Jetblue
- Indigo
- Ryanair
- Scoot
- Southwest
- Spicejet
- Spirit
- Vueling
- Vietjet
- Volaris
- Westjet
- Wizz
See also: The most watched inflight movie on board Qantas flights revealed
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