Travel Expert Gives Insight Into the 2 ‘Safest Airlines in the World'
It's been a tough year for air travel, and in light of all the stuff that's happened between Boeing's public dressing-down and a bevy of mechanical incidents from United Airlines, people are more anxious about flying than ever before. Will this Boeing plane fall apart from under me? Does my airline keep up with aircraft maintenance as well as they claim to? Is the aviation industry losing its grip on high safety standards?
While air travel is still extremely safe, it's understandable why a lot of people's faith in it has been shaken this year. But what if you want to be as safe as possible, and fly only with the safest airlines in the world? Travel expert "Non-Stop Dan" made a compelling case for two particular airlines being the safest in the world - but the good news may ring hollow for American air travelers.
If we are to go off of @thenonstopdan's assessment, then Air New Zealand and Qantas Airways, Australia's national airline, are the two safest airlines in the world. Dan brings the "receipts" to prove his point, though. Air New Zealand (which takes the true top spot) hasn't had a fatal incident in the past 45 years of its 83-year history. There were a couple of non-fatal plane hijackings a couple decades ago, Dan says, but beyond that, nothing close to a serious incident has besmirched Air New Zealand's impeccable record in nearly half a century.
Qantas technically comes in second, but only just. According to TimeOut, Qantas lost its top spot to Air New Zealand last year by just a 1.5 point margin. It seems like the two airlines trade for first and second place quite frequently. These ratings come from AirlineRatings.com, which compiles yearly rankings for airline safety based on a huge range of factors, including serious incidents, government audits, safety initiatives, fleet age, pilot training assessments, and much more.
The Safest US-Based Airlines
With the flagship airlines of both Australia and New Zealand neck-and-neck for the safest in the world, air travelers in the South Pacific are pretty much set. This news probably comes as little comfort to American air travelers, though, because if you're not flying between Australia or New Zealand, you're probably not going to have the option to fly with these airlines.
So let's swallow our pride and narrow our search: which American air carriers carry the safety standard the highest? Returning to AirlineRatings.com's 2024 list, four American air carriers made it into the Top 25, two of which will probably come as some surprise: Alaska Airlines came in 10th, Hawaiian Airlines in 21st, American Airlines in 22nd, and United Airlines in 25th. Yeah... did I mention that this list was published on January 3 of this year?
Arguably, one could at least partially absolve Alaska Airlines of the January 5 door plug incident, as that involved Boeing's manufacturing error and so far seems to be a one-off. United Airlines' recent dramatic mechanical incident streak seems potentially more detrimental to its overall safety record, though. It'll be interesting to see how these rankings shift come 2025, but man... researching this piece wasn't nearly as anxiety-relieving as I'd hoped. Maybe there's something to be said for road tripping these days...
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