Safest Airlines in 2024 Ranked as Passengers Spooked by Flurry of Crashes

2 weeks ago 2

What's New

Two major aviation crashes taking place within days of each other have left passengers spooked, with both airlines ranking low for safety compared to other carriers.

Why It's Important

With 4.4 billion people flying in 2023, passenger confidence is crucial to an airline's success. Two recent, deadly crashes just days apart in South Korea and Kazakhstan have rattled many people's nerves.

What To Know

The majority of airlines in the world have excellent safety ratings, and despite air travel accidents often making headlines, crashes are still extremely rare. Commercial aviation statistically remains the safest form of transportation. The National Safety Council reports that "the lifetime odds of dying as an aircraft passenger in the United States were too small to calculate."

Still, the Jeju and Azerbaijan crashes are enough to make even a confident flier's stomach turn.

According to airlineratings.com, the following were ranked the safest airlines in January 2024:

Air New Zealand
Qantas (Australia)
Virgin Australia
Etihad Airways (UAE)
Qatar Airways
Emirates (UAE)
All Nippon Airways (Japan)
Finnair
Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong)
Alaska Airlines
SAS (Scandinavia)
Korean Air
Singapore Airlines
EVA Air (Taiwan)
British Airways
Turkish Airlines
TAP Air Portugal
Lufthansa/Swiss Group
KLM (Netherlands)
Japan Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
American Airlines
Air France
Air Canada Group
United Airlines

According to the website, only 13 airlines have the lowest possible rating of 1 out of 7, including Russian carriers Aeroflot and Rossiya Airlines, as well as flag carriers Pakistan International Airlines and Montenegro Airlines.

Jeju Air and Azerbaijan Airlines both have a safety ranking of 4 out of 7.

Well-known and used American carriers—including American Airlines, Delta, Spirit, Jet Blue, Frontier, Southwest and Alaska Airlines—all have 7 out of 7 safety ratings.

The last fatal U.S. airline crash was a Colgan Air flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, in February 2009. It crashed into a house on its approach to New York, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground. Since then, billions of passengers have flown without incident across the U.S. and the rest of the world.

What People Are Saying

Kristy Kiernan, associate director of the Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University told USA Today: "Overall commercial aviation is incredibly safe. You are far safer once you get on the airplane than you are in the car on the way to the airport. It's understandable that people get nervous when something big like this happens, but aviation remains incredibly safe with numerous redundancies."

Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research, a travel industry analytics firm, told USA Today: "U.S. airlines have some of the most rigid pilot hiring standards, some of the most exacting pilot training standards—that also applies to their flight attendants, flight attendants who go through extensive safety training—so the likelihood of something like this happening in the U.S. or many other countries is very, very small,"

Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae said in a statement to The Korea Times: "We extend our deepest condolences and apologies to the passengers who lost their lives in the accident and to their bereaved families. Currently, the exact cause of the accident has yet to be determined, and we must wait for the official investigation by government agencies. Regardless of the cause, I take full responsibility as the CEO."

Boeing, in a statement to Newsweek: "We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew."

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, regarding the Azerbaijan Airline crash: "Those responsible must be punished, brought to criminal responsibility, and the Azerbaijani state, the affected passengers and crew members must be paid compensation."