A leading aviation group has announced its list of the world's top 20 safest airlines to fly in 2021, with Air New Zealand in third place.
The ranking comes from AirlineRatings.com, which monitors 385 major international carriers according to what it calls a "comprehensive range of factors".
It includes airlines' crash and serious incident records, fleet age and pilot training, account audits from aviation governing bodies, government audits and culture.
The Aussies are beating the Kiwis again - Qantas has come out on top of the list for the second year in a row.
Editors of AirlineRatings.com noted that after over 100 years of history, Qantas has "amassed a truly amazing record of firsts in operations and safety and is now accepted as the industry's most experienced airline".
Air NZ's ranking has dropped down one place from last year.
Other airlines making the top 20 include Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Emirates and Virgin Australia.
The full list of AirlineRatings.com's top 20 safest airlines in 2021
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Air New Zealand
- Singapore Airlines
- Emirates
- EVA Air
- Etihad Airways
- Alaska Airlines
- Cathay Pacific Airways
- British Airways
- Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- American Airlines
- SAS
- Finnair
- Lufthansa
- KLM
- United Airlines
AirlineRatings.com also included the top 10 safest low-cost airlines for 2021, which includes Air Arabia, Allegiant, easyJet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet, Westjet and Wizz.
