Air New Zealand named ‘world’s safest airline’

Etihad and Singapore Airlines also featured in the top five

An Air New Zealand plane on the tarmac (Getty Images)

Air New Zealand has been rated the world’s safest airline in a 2022 list released by AirlineRatings.com.

The website monitors 385 airlines worldwide and publishes a Top 20 list each year.

Airlines are ranked on their crash and incident records, audits from aviation governing and industry bodies, government audits, industry-leading safety initiatives, and fleet age - as well as their Covid-19 safety protocols.

The rest of the top five were: Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and TAP Air Portugal.

Virgin Atlantic came in at 10th place, while British Airways was ranked 17th.

Editor-in-chief of AirRatings.com, Geoffrey Thomas, said; “Air New Zealand is a stand-out airline with a firm focus on safety and its customers and over the past 18 months, Covid-19 has brought another new dimension to the challenges the industry faces.

“Air New Zealand has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail while caring for its flight crews who have worked under significant stress.”

The carrier’s chief executive, Greg Foran, said: “Air New Zealand is very humbled to receive this recognition, particularly given the high safety standards the airline industry holds itself to. We’re in good company and a big congratulations to all airlines on the list.

“We were the first airline in the world to ask our customers flying on our domestic services to either be vaccinated or tested before boarding and, come 1 February, will require all customers on our international services to be fully vaccinated too.”

The website also published a top 10 list of safest short-haul airlines in no particular order, featuring Allegiant, easyJet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet, Volaris, WestJet, and Wizz Air.

However, The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder said: “The conclusions of this ‘survey’ are perplexing.

“Almost all the airlines named in this top 20 list have, sadly, suffered multiple fatal accidents.

“In terms of passengers flown by carriers that have never lost a passenger in an accident, Ryanair remains the safest in the world, followed by easyJet.”