Experts officially reveal the number one safest airline in the world

Experts have officially revealed which is the number one safest airline in the world.

This comes as the top 25 safest airlines of the year were announced by AirlineRatings.com.

The website describes its as been the world’s only airline safety and product rating site and has announced which full-service and low-cost airlines are the safest globally.

The list was produced from the whopping 385 airlines that the website monitors and now it has been revealed to the public which ones made it to the top spots.

Air New Zealand has been graded as the safest full-service plane (Morgan Hancock/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The top full-service airlines for 2025:

1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Cathay Pacific; Qatar Airways; Emirates
4. Virgin Australia
5. Etihad Airways
6. ANA
7. EVA Air
8. Korean Air
9. Alaska Airlines
10. Turkish Airlines (THY)
11. TAP Portugal
12. Hawaiian Airlines
13. American Airlines
14. SAS
15. British Airways
16. Iberia
17. Finnair
18. Lufthansa/Swiss
19. JAL
20. Air Canada
21. Delta Airlines
22. Vietnam Airlines
23. United Airlines

Meanwhile, the top low-cost airlines for 2025 are:

1. HK Express
2. Jetstar Group
3. Ryanair
4. easyJet
5. Frontier Airlines
6. AirAsia
7. Wizz Air
8. VietJet Air
9. Southwest Airlines
10. Volaris
11. flydubai
12. Norwegian
13. Vueling
14. Jet2
15. Sun Country Airlines
16. WestJet
17. JetBlue Airways
18. Air Arabia
19. IndiGo
20. Eurowings
21. Allegiant Air
22. Cebu Pacific
23. ZipAir
24. SKY Airline
25. Air Baltic

CEO of AirlineRatings.com, Sharon Petersen, said: “It was extremely close again between Air New Zealand and Qantas for first place with only 1.50 points separating the two airlines. Whilst both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continue to have a younger fleet than Qantas which separates the two.”

She went on to say: “The three-way tie for third place was because we simply could not separate these airlines. From fleet age to pilot skill, safety practices, fleet size, and number of incidents, their scores were identical.”

Ryanair took third place in safest low-cost airlines (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

How are the airlines rated?

There is a specific way in which the website grades airlines to measure their safety.

These include looking at any serious incidents that have occurred in the last two years as well as fleet age and size, the rate of incidents, fatalities, profitability, IOSA certification, ICAO country audit pass, and pilot skill and training.

On the site, it explains: “It is essential to evaluate all these factors in the appropriate context. For instance, an airline operating only 100 aircraft experiencing three incidents raises greater concern than an airline with 800 aircraft experiencing six incidents.

“Additionally, financial instability within an airline can lead to significant operational challenges, automatically disqualifying it as a candidate. Similarly, any airline found at fault for a crash or failing its IOSA certification cannot be considered.”