“This year we went for a top 25 because the margins were so small between these airlines,” Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com, told Forbes in an interview.

The airline safety and product rating review website has a seven-star rating system to judge 385 airlines. Serious incidents, recent fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment, and fleet age are some of the factors reviewed by the website.

It does not consider bird strikes, turbulence injuries, weather diversions, and lightning strikes while reviewing the airlines’ safety.

In 2024, the website expanded the list to 25 of the largest and best-known carriers. Air New Zealand reclaimed its top spot after 2022.

“Air New Zealand operates in some of the most challenging weather environments which test pilot skills,” Thomas said, “Wellington is one of the most windy airports in the world, while Queenstown is a huge navigation challenge.”

The editor-in-chief of the website added that the New Zealand airline did not compromise on the latest technology as he described its aircraft as “state of the art”.

Air New Zealand was followed by Qantas, which was the safest airline in 2023. According to Thomas, the safety margin was very small between the top two airlines. “Between Air New Zealand and Qantas there is only 1.5 points—it’s incredibly close,” he said.

He went on to add that Qantas lost points on fleet age, which the Australia based airline would address this year. The Jetstar owned airline has some to cheer about as it comes on top of the list of low-cost carriers.

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Many people would be astonished to see that only one US carrier managed to make it to the top 10 list and that is Alaska Airlines. “The US carrier’s rankings are dragged down by the fleet age of their aircraft, however, all have major replacement programs in place but it will take time for that to reflect in the rankings,” Thomas said.

But Pakistan’s national flag carrier, PIA, does not feature in the list. The reason could be the state of the airline, which dominated the skies during 1964-54. The PIA is marred by financial woes and experts have called for its privatisation to ease the burden on national exchequer.

Last year, an aircraft of PIA averted a major crisis and landed after shortly after one of its engines caught fire mid-air.

Below is the list of the world’s top 25 safest airlines and the safest low-cost airlines

Top 25 safest airlines

• Air New Zealand
• Qantas
• Virgin Australia
• Etihad Airways
• Qatar Airways
• Emirates
• All Nippon Airways
• Finnair
• Cathay Pacific Airways
• Alaska Airlines
• SAS
• Korean Air
• Singapore Airlines
• EVA Air
• British Airways
• Turkish Airlines
• TAP Air Portugal
• Lufthansa/Swiss Group
• KLM
• Japan Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• American Airlines
• Air France
• Air Canada Group
• United Airlines

20 safest low-cost airlines

• Jetstar
• easyJet
• Ryanair
• Wizz
• Norwegian
• Frontier
• Vueling
• Vietjet
• Southwest
• Volaris
• flydubai
• AirAsia Group
• Cebu Pacific
• Sun Country
• Spirit
• Westjet
• JetBlue
• Air Arabia
• Indigo
• Eurowings