Airline safety ratings: The best carriers are all from the Pacific region
A new website that ranks the airlines for safety and quality has given top scores in both categories to 11 carriers—10 based in the Pacific region and Virgin Atlantic.
The new site, AirlineRatings.com, was created by a team of Australian aviation editors after two years of extensive research.
"While air travel has never been safer and we found a record number of 137 airlines with a seven-star safety ranking, 43 have just three stars or less," says site founder Geoffrey Thomas.
The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations as well as government audits and the airline’s fatality record.
While major airlines scored well, with mostly high ratings for safety and passable product quality, many of those flying in Africa and Indonesia scored very poorly.
"As someone who typically flies more than 75 days a year, I can tell you, it’s important to know more about the airline you’re about to hop onto than merely what they’re serving for lunch! In some parts of the world, people may be better off considering road or train options than risking a flight," Thomas said.
Flying from London to Moscow, for example, few travelers have heard of Belavia Airlines, but is has a perfect score of seven for safety, he noted.
The team has spent two years collecting the data for the website, which it calls "the most comprehensive collection of independent information about airlines, their safety ratings, product quality, aircraft types, lounge reviews, and much more."
AirlineRatings.com will be updated continuously to add new reviews and information and to update the safety ratings.
In the launch ratings, the airlines getting perfect scores of 7 out of 7 in both safety and product are: Air New Zealand, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air from Taiwan, Korean Air, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
Among US airlines, Delta and JetBlue led the pack, with scores of 7 and 5 for safety and product, respectively. United and USAir did worst, at 7 and 3.5.
Here’s a chart of the ratings of some major carriers:
|
Airline |
Safety Rating |
Product Rating |
|
Air Canada |
7 stars |
6.5 stars |
|
American Airlines |
7 stars |
4 stars |
|
British Airways |
7 stars |
6 stars |
|
Delta |
7 stars |
5 stars |
|
JetBlue |
7 stars |
5 stars |
|
Qantas |
7 stars |
7 stars |
|
United Airlines |
7 stars |
3.5 stars |
|
Virgin Atlantic |
7 stars |
7 stars |
By Cheryl Rosen
Cheryl
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