World’s safest airlines - 2026 edition

[MEL_Traveller]

So here’s the list, courtesy of news.com.au: https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...t/news-story/23bd49ce36377bad148748c215d402ff

I don’t understand how there are two lists… safest in the legacy and LCC sectors. Either you’re in the safest list, or not?

Or are they expecting passengers to accept a lower safety standard because they’re flying low cost? (answer should be ‘no’, so what’s the point of two lists?)

 

[Dmac59]

Read the full article at Airline Ratings and totally agree @MEL_Traveller
There should be one ranking only IMO as the same criteria apply in the assessment.
Whether an airline is LCC or Full Service is not relevant.

 

[Quickstatus]

It is actually very hard to measure safety as there are complex interdependencies between various internal parts of an airline (pilots, management, training, procedures culture) , and externally with regulators.

Unfortunately not much of the criteria used actually properly measure safety and there is no granular detail - only a conclusory article. It's superficial at best.
Not sure what "international safety audits" actually means. Do they mean the IATA Operational Safety Audit? Anyone know what it entails?

What's the airline's safety culture, corporate culture, near miss reporting, fatigue reporting and management, regulatory compliance, interactions between different stakeholders.

There are various different models used to measure airline safety - DEMATEL, ANP, STPA are some.. Basically it's a "dark art". I'm not sure this article actually sheds much light on the subject.

 

[JustSlash]

Interesting article....I'm guessing perhaps some LCCs might overtake full-service airlines if they’re not separated, which could easily spark a few debates.

Also a little surprised to see some LCCs in the top 10 (ahem… AirAsia and VietJet). Safe to say delays and customer satisfaction probably weren’t part of the criteria

 

[RooFlyer]

Or are they expecting passengers to accept a lower safety standard because they’re flying low cost? (answer should be ‘no’, so what’s the point of two lists?)

Maybe speaking to 2 perceived different constituencies of travellers. But agree it’s a nonsense to have two lists. Number one on LCC might be number 30 overall..

 

[Dmac59]

Doesn't make much sense.
JAL didn't make the top 25 list, yet VA ranked 9.
However, drilling down into their data shows JAL higher overall (see below)