Qantas beaten in 2024's world's safest airline rankings

In another blow to the Aussie carrier's reputation, it has lost the #1 spot in the rankings.

Being the world's safest airline was once a source of pride for Qantas.

It's official - Air New Zealand has been named the world's safest airline for 2024.

AirlineRatings.com the world’s only safety and product rating website, announced today that the Kiwi carrier has gained top spot from last year’s winner Qantas.

According to AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas: “Our Top Twenty-Five Safest Airlines are all standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft.”

“In fact, the safety margins between these top twenty-five airlines are very small,” Mr. Thomas said.

“Between Air New Zealand and Qantas there is only 1.5 points. It’s incredibly close.”

Air New Zealand took out top honours.

In making its evaluation, AirlineRatings.com takes into account a range of factors that include serious incidents, recent fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment and fleet age.

However, the evaluation leaves out such things as bird strikes, turbulence injuries, weather diversions and lightning strikes as the airline has no control over such events.

Air New Zealand pilots operate in some tricky environments.

In selecting Air New Zealand, AirlineRatings.com editors noted that the airline has a firm focus on safety and has excelled across a broad safety spectrum right down to the smallest detail and its pilots operate in some very challenging environments.

Top 25 safest airlines for 2024

1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Virgin Australia
4. Etihad Airways
5. Qatar Airways
6. Emirates
7. All Nippon Airways
8. Finnair
9. Cathay Pacific Airways
10. Alaska Airlines
11. SAS
12. Korean Air
13. Singapore Airlines
14. EVA Air
15. British Airways
16. Turkish Airlines
17. TAP Air Portugal
18. Lufthansa/Swiss Group
19. KLM
20. Japan Airlines
21. Hawaiian Airlines
22. American Airlines
23. Air France
24. Air Canada Group
25. United Airlines

Japan Airlines, which had a plane burst into flames yesterday at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, came in at number 20 in the rankings (the rankings were released prior to the collision occurring).

Top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2024

“These airlines all have an excellent safety culture and a low incident rates,“ Mr Thomas said.

1. Jetstar
2. easyJet
3. Ryanair
4. Wizz
5. Norwegian
6. Frontier
7. Vueling
8. Vietjet
9. Southwest
10. Volaris
11. flydubai
12. AirAsia Group **
13. Cebu Pacific
14. Sun Country
15. Spirit
16. Westjet
17. JetBlue
18. Air Arabia
19. Indigo
20. Eurowings

**AirAsia, AirAsia X, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia India.

Originally published as Qantas beaten in 2024's world's safest airline rankings