COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Qantas of Australia is adjudged the safest airline in the world and topped the list of the most reliable airline prepared by AirlineRatings.com. Qantas has a rare history of continuous fatality-free service and topped the list for the last three years. The Australian airline with 95 years of service is one of the most experienced airlines too.
The survey has also found that airlines from Indonesia, Nepal and Surinam have the worst ratings.
An expert team surveyed 407 airlines and 148 of them got the seven star safety ranking and 50 got three stars or less. Ten airlines performed badly and got only one star.
The 19 airlines in alphabetical order, apart from Qantas that got a place in the top twenty list are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
The website has released top ten list of no-frill airlines. The low-cost airlines of the list in the alphabetical order are Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.
Last year, 16 accidents and 560 fatalities were recorded compared to 21 accidents and 986 fatalities in 2014. The average number of accidents in the last ten years was 31 and fatalities numbered 714. 34 million flights were operated in 2015, carrying 3.6 billion passengers.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX