Last year proved to be another incredibly difficult year for airlines, given the drop in air travel that continued through 2021 because of the impact of the pandemic.
Even now, two years after Covid-19 was first brought to the world’s attention, there are still far fewer flights and passengers flying.
The virus also continued to dominate airline safety conversations, leading to some significant changes to the annual list of the world’s safest airlines on AirlineRatings.com, an airline safety and product review site.
This year, Air New Zealand topped the annual safety chart, which tracks 385 airlines around the world, measuring factors such as airline accidents and serious incident records, the age of their aircraft, as well as protocols and innovation. related to Covid-19.
New Zealand’s flag carrier was awarded first place “due to its excellent incident record, number of cabin innovations, pilot training and very low fleet age”, according to Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Australian website.
Etihad Airways was in second place, while Qatar Airways was in third. Singapore Airlines and TAP Portugal reached fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Noticeably absent from the top five is Qantas, which held the title of safest airline in the world from 2014 to 2017, as well as from 2019 to 2021 (no clear winners were found in 2018).
The Australian company is in seventh place this time around, due to a “slight increase in incidents along with the age of the fleet.”
In October 2021, a Qantas Boeing traveling from the Australian city of Perth to Adelaide, Western Australia, was diverted due to a fuel imbalance, in an occurrence classified as a “serious incident”.
“The past two years have been extremely difficult for airlines, with Covid-19 reducing travel. Airline Ratings editors have focused primarily on the efforts airlines are making to train pilots prior to a return to service,” explains Thomas.
“Air New Zealand is a leader in this field, with comprehensive recycling.” The airline has also received accolades for being a world leader in operational safety advancements over the past four decades.
Its various initiatives include recently becoming one of the first airlines in the world to test the use of Assaia Apron AI technology to improve the turnaround time of its aircraft.
“Air New Zealand has excelled across the full spectrum of security, never losing sight of the smallest details while taking care of its flight crews who have worked under significant stress,” Thomas told CNN.
On a few occasions, AirlineRatings simply chose to name the winner, before listing the rest of the top airlines in alphabetical order.
But the site recently opted to rank each of the top 20 airlines in numerical order, revealing some significant year-on-year movement.
For example, Emirates was ranked fifth in the 2021 list, but the UAE airline was listed in the 20th place this year, while Southwest Airlines was ranked 13th in 2021, but is not included in the new top 20 of 2022.
AirlineRatings.com has also produced a list of the world’s safest budget airlines, which are listed alphabetically and evenly ranked once again.
The top 10 safest budget airlines are: Allegiant Air, easyJet, Frontier Airlines, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet Air, Volaris, Westjet and Wizz Air.
The safest airlines from AirlineRatings.com in 2022:
1. Air New Zealand
2. Etihad Airways
3. Qatar Airways
4. Singapore Airlines
5. TAP Air Portugal
6. SAS
7. Qantas
8. Alaska Airlines
9. EVA Air
10. Virgin Australia / Virgin Atlantic
11. Cathay Pacific Airways
12. Hawaiian Airlines
13. American Airlines
14. Lufthansa
15. Finnair
16. KLM
17. British Airways
18. Delta Air Lines
19. United Airlines
20. Emirates
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
