World’s Safest Airlines in 2018 Revealed!

A new study performed by the Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC) has shown, that low cost carriers do not have to be unsafe whatsoever. Also, JACDEC has now awarded the world’s safest airlines of 2018 in its newest airline safety ranking.

The World’s Safest Airlines 2018 – Emirates on Top!

In the timeframe until the end of 2017, Emirates was the world’s safest airline. According to JACDEC CEO Jan-Arwed Richter, the annual JACDEC airline safety ranking is not only a snapshot in time. The ranking of the world’s safest airlines is based on a long-term analysis. This analysis takes 33 factors into account. Among those factors are, for instance, the number of passengers transported, as well as the kilometres flown. Moreover, other factors considered are the number of crashes and incidents (which passengers often do not notice whatsoever).

Number two among the world’s safest airlines is the 1993-founded low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle. Virgin Atlantic made it on number three of the world’s safest airlines in 2018. Position four goes to the dutch full-service carrier KLM, while EasyJet is the fifth safest airline worldwide.

The Top 10List of the World’s Safest Airlines in 2018

In the following, the ten safest airlines according to the newest JACDEC rating are listed:

1. Emirates (UAE, United Arab Emirates)
2. Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAX, Norway)
3. Virgin Atlantic Airways (VIR, United kingdom)
4. KLM -Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM, The Netherlands)
5. EasyJet (EZY, United Kingdom)
6. Finnair (FIN, Finland)
7. Etihad Airways (ETD, United Arab Emirates)
8. Spirit Airlines (NKS, USA)
9. Jetstar Airways (JST, Australia)
10. Air Arabia (ABY, United Arab Emirates)

This list clearly shows, that low cost carriers cannot only compete to full-service carriers in terms of flight safety, but also rank on top positions. This is shown by Norwegian Air Shuttle, EasyJet and Spirit, ranking on position 2, 5 and 8 respectively.

The Hamburg-based JACDEC office releases its airline safety ranking yearly. In 2017, however, the consultancy changed their method of data analysis. While the Hong-Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific was the world’s safest airline in 2017, the carrier can now be found in the 12th position.

2017 Was the Safest Year in Aviation History!

According to a study, 2017 was the safest year in aviation history, because no passenger jet has crashed in this year. The Aviation Safety Network states, that there were only as few as 10 fatal crashes of commercial aeroplanes in the year 2017.

This is especially staggering, considering the fact that commercial airlines have carried over 4,000,0000,000 passengers for the first time in only one year. To put these figures into perspective: Over 1,25 million people were killed in car accidents in 2017, according to the WHO.

Those crashes accounted for 44 deaths in 2017, compared with 16 accidents with 302 passengers killed in the year before. By the way: The least safe year in aviation so far was 1972, since 2,469 passengers died in 55 crashes in that year.

The World’s Least Safe Airlines

Of course, there are also not-so-safe airlines carrying passengers around the skies. A full list of them can always be found on the EU Blacklist of Unsafe Airlines. Four of the seven unsafest airlines of 2017 are based in Nepal. In alphabetical order, the world’s least safe airlines in 2017 were:

• Air Koryo (KOR, North Korea)
• Bluewing Airlines (BWI, Suriname)
• Buddha Air (BHA, Nepal)
• Nepal Airlines (RNA, Nepal)
• Tara Air (TRA, Nepal)
• Trigana Air Service (TGN, Indonesia)
• Yeti Airlines (NYT, Nepal).

However, as stated above, no mean of transport is safer than flying. I hope that you have enjoyed my article. You can always subscribe to my email newsletter.

Also, you might find some other articles of mine interesting.

• How does the instrument landing system work?
• What are V Speeds, and how do they help pilots?
• What does a working day of a Lufthansa 747 pilot look like?

You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram. My free aircraft wallpapers are available here!

Have a great day,

Aaron