UAE’s Etihad, Emirates rank among world’s safest full-service airlines

Dubai: UAE’s flag carriers Etihad Airways and Emirates have once again ranked among the safest full-service airlines worldwide. Airline safety and product rating website AirlineRatings.com announced its Top 20 Safest Airlines ratings Tuesday, January 3, placing UAE carriers Etihad Airways and Emirates among the top ten safest airlines in the world in a list of 20 carriers.

AirlineRatings.com established the rankings after monitoring 385 different airlines. GCC carrier Qatar Airways also made it to the top ten list of full-service carriers. Etihad Airways is the third safest airline in the world, followed by Emirates taking the seventh spot, climbing 13 places since last year’s ranking.

Launched in June 2013, the website rates the safety, in-flight product, and COVID-19 compliance of 385 airlines using its unique seven-star rating system.

Meanwhile, the website also ranked UAE-based budget carriers flydubai and Air Arabia among the twenty safest low-cost airlines for 2023.

Editor-in-Chief of AirlineRatings.com, Geoffrey Thomas, said these airlines are standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching new aircraft.

According to Thomas, for the full-service carriers, the website analyses crashes over five years, severe incidents over two years of audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations, fleet age, expert analysis of pilot training, and COVID-19 protocols in making their determinations.

“Our top 20 safest airlines 2023 are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence, and the launching of new, more advanced aircraft like the Airbus A350 (above) and Boeing 787,” he explained.

The top ten full-service carriers on the 2023 list are Qantas, Air New Zealand, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Emirates, Alaska Airlines, EVA Air, and Virgin Australia/Atlantic.

Meanwhile, for the budget carriers, factors used to decide the top 20 safest low-cost airlines include incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the governing body of aviation, The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), EU banned lists and fleet age.

The AirlineRatings top ten safest low-cost airlines for 2022 are, in alphabetical order, Air Arabia, AirAsia Group, Allegiant, Air Baltic, EasyJet, flyDubai, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, and Indigo. Indian carrier SpiceJet has also made it to the list.

Thomas explained, “All airlines have daily incidents, and many are aircraft or engine manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. How the flight crew handles these incidents determines a good airline from an unsafe one.”