Air New Zealand named world’s safest airline

New Zealand’s national airline, Air New Zealand, has been named as the world’s safest airline.

An Air New Zealand plane. (Source: Getty)

The accomplishment comes as AirlineRatings.com, which monitors 385 airlines, has revealed its top safest airlines and top safest low-cost airlines.

Taking the top spot, Air New Zealand has been credited for its work.

AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas said that during an “extremely difficult” couple of years for airlines, Air New Zealand had been a leader with its comprehensive retraining.

“Air New Zealand has also been a lead airline in many major operational safety advancements over the past 40 years,” he said.

“Air New Zealand also has an extremely young fleet and its pilots fly in some of the most difficult conditions from windy Wellington to the Southern Alps.”

Also in the top 20 safest airlines behind Air New Zealand, the website named the following airlines in numerical order: Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, TAP Portugal, SAS, Qantas, Alaska Airlines, EVA Air, Virgin Australia/Atlantic, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines, Lufthansa/Swiss Group, Finnair, Air France/KLM Group, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Emirates.

“These airlines like Air New Zealand, have outstanding records and are at the forefront of safety,” Thomas said.

AirlineRatings.com has also named 10 airlines as the safest low-cost airlines. They are Allegiant, easyjet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet, Volaris, Westjet, and Wizz.

The airlines are ranked on their crash and serious incident record, fleet age, audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations; government audits, operational innovation, Covid-19 protocols, and balance sheet strength.