African airlines have been found missing on the list of the top safest Airlines for 2016 as AirlineRatings.com, a global safety and product rating website, launched in June 2013, announced Qantas, Etihad and others as top 20 safest airlines for 2016.
The website which revealed 10 safest low cost airlines for 2016 from the 407 airlines it monitors also noted that top on the list for the third year is Australia’s Qantas Airlines, which has an extraordinary fatality free record in the jet era.
The top 20 safest airlines in the world in alphabetical order according to AirlineRatings.com are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air and Finn air.
Others are Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
The AirlineRatings.com’s rating system takes into account a range of factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations as well as government audits and the airline’s fatality record.
AirlineRating.com’s editorial team, also examined each airline’s operational history, incident records and operational excellence to arrive at its top twenty safest airlines.
Explaining how the website safety rate each airline, AirlineRatings.com stated that the top 20 have always been at the forefront of safety innovation and launching of new aircrafts and that these airlines have become a byword for excellence.
Responding to public interest, the AirlineRatings.com editors also identified their top 10 safest low cost airlines in alphabetical order to include Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.
The editors added that unlike a number of low cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and have excellent safety records.
On the safest airlines and the ones that offer best experience on board, theAirlineRatings.com editors, stated that out of the 407 airlines surveyed, 148 have the top seven-star safety ranking but almost 50 have just three stars or less.
The website also disclosed that there were 10 airlines with only one star and these airlines are from Indonesia, Nepal and Surinam.
In selecting Qantas as the world’s safest airline AirlineRatings.com editors noted that over its 95-year history the world’s oldest consistent operating airline has amassed an extraordinary record of first in operations and safety and that it is now accepted as the industry’s most experienced carrier.
According to the team, the Australian airlines has been a leader in the development of the Future Air Navigation System; the Flight Data Recorder to monitor plane and later crew performance; automatic landings using Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) as well as precision approaches around mountains in cloud using RNP.
Qantas was the lead airline with real time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite communications, which has enabled the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue.
On the world’s scariest landing, AirlineRatings.com stated that last year was a disturbing year for airline safety with some tragic and bizarre accidents such as the high profile German Wings and Metro jet disasters.
It however added that according to Aviation-Safety.net data, the 16 accidents in 2015 with 560 fatalities were below the 10-year average of 31 accidents and 714 fatalities, adding that 2015 year was also a significant improvement over 2014 when there were 21 fatal accidents with 986 fatalities.
Balancing these numbers the world’s airlines carried a record 3.6 billion passengers on 34 million flights in 2015.
50 years ago, there were a staggering 87 crashes killing 1,597 when airlines carried only 141 million passengers; 5 per cent of today’s number.
Ifeoma Okeke
