Air New Zealand has once again been crowned the world’s safest airline, with Qantas only narrowly missing out on the top spot. The annual ranking, compiled by AirlineRatings.com, evaluates hundreds of airlines, on safety factors such as fleet age and size, serious incidents over the past 2 years, fatalities, profitability, and pilot training. This year, over 385 airlines were assessed and classified into full-service and low-cost carriers.
“It was extremely close again between Air New Zealand and Qantas for first place with only 1.50 points separating the two airlines. Whilst both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continue to have a younger fleet than Qantas which separates the two,” AirlineRatings.com CEO Sharon Petersen said.
The third place was a three-way tie between Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and Emirates with the study noting that the scores for these airlines were identical across factors such as fleet age, pilot skill, safety practices, fleet size, and incident history. Virgin Australia also made the list at number 4 with Etihad Airways rounding out the top 5. On the low-cost airline front, Aussie carrier Jetstar, a fully-owned subsidiary of Qantas, was ranked second trailing only Hong Kong Express. Notably missing from the top 10 were Singapore Airlines and KLM.
The world’s top 10 safest airlines for 2025
- Air New Zealand
- Qantas
- Cathay Pacific; Qatar Airways; Emirates
- Virgin Australia
- Etihad Airways
- ANA
- EVA Air
- Korean Air
- Alaska Airlines
- Turkish Airlines (THY)
The world’s top 10 safest low-cost airlines for 2025
- Hong Kong Express
- Jetstar Group
- Ryanair
- easyJet
- Frontier Airlines
- AirAsia
- Wizz Air
- VietJet Air
- Southwest Airlines
- Volaris
See the full list and more details here.