AirlineRatings.com, which rates the top twenty safest airlines, has announced its picks for the safest air carriers for 2019. These include Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, and both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.

Overall, Qantas was named the world’s safest airline for 2019 given its constant innovation. The 98-year-old airline is a leader in flight data recording, which assesses plane and crew performance. It is also at the forefront of using Global Navigation Satellite Systems for landings and precision mountain approaches. Qantas also ranks first in terms of real-time engine monitoring using satellite communications, which allows the airline to detect complications before they become a safety issue.

According to AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas, the top twenty carriers are leading the way in terms of safety, innovation, and new aircraft. The site also revealed its top ten safest discount carriers, which include Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia / Asia, Thomas Cook, Volaris, Vueling, Westjet and Wizz.

In contrast with other discount airlines, these carriers have all complied with International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audits (IOSA) and have outstanding safety records. The factors considered to determine the top twenty safest airlines include audits from transportation associations and governments, each airline’s crash and serious incident record, and the average age of its aircraft.

According to Thomas, the site only considered serious incidents when selecting its top airlines. “All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems,’ he says. “It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one. So just lumping all incidents together is very misleading.”

He added that some countries have less than stellar incident reporting systems, which can make the selection process complicated.

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AirlineRatings.com also revealed its lowest-ranked airlines, which include Ariana Afghan Airlines, Bluewing Airlines, Kam Air, and Trigana Air Service. The rating system was launched in 2013. It assesses the safety of 405 air carriers, assigning a one to seven-star rating for each airline. The site has been viewed by millions of travelers from 232 countries and has set a new standard for safety and product ratings in the airline industry. The editorial team has been recognized with almost 50 international and national awards.