Dubai: Two major Gulf carriers, Emirates and Etihad Airways, have been named among the world’s top 20 safest airlines for 2016.
Airlineratings.com, which surveyed 407 airlines, picked Australia’s Qantas as the world’s safest airline to fly in.
The recent years have seen a number of aviation accidents involving the Malaysian Airlines, GermanWings and Metrojet, leaving many passengers wary of air travel. However, there has been a decline in the number of fatal accidents.
Etihad is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, serving the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America routes. Among its major strengths include its “award winning in-flight product in all classes” and the availability of nannies on board to assist passengers with children on long haul flights.
Emirates, another fast-growing carrier in the Gulf, operates more than 170 aircraft to over 120 destinations. It is one of only a few airlines that have a fleet of wide bodied aircraft.
Its in-flight entertainment system and “consistency and quality of in-flight product” are considered some of its major strengths, according to Airline Ratings.
Making up the remainder of the top 20 in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
Read more details about the survey here.
