The World’s 20 Safest Airlines For 2018 Have Been Revealed

Airlineratings.com has released its safety rankings for the world's best (and worst) airlines of 2018.

Sadly no Irish airline features in the best part of the list but luckily enough also, none feature in the bad half of the list either.

Now, as the man says, do you want the good news first or the bad news first?

Before handing out the top awards to the airlines, the ratings website picked out seven airlines from around the world that only managed one star out of a possible seven.

The ratings are based on all sorts of criteria including audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations, government audits, records of crashes and serious incidents and the fleet age.

Seven airlines that got one star:

• Buddha Air
• Nepal Airlines
• Tara Air
• Yeti Airlines
• Air Koryo
• Trigana Air Service
• Blue Wing Airlines

At the other end of the scale, here are the 20 safest airlines in the world, all of which received a seven-star rating:

• Air New Zealand
• Alaska Airlines
• All Nippon Airways
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific Airways
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• EVA Air
• Finnair
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Japan Airlines
• KLM
• Lufthansa
• Qantas
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• Scandinavian Airline System
• Singapore Airlines
• Swiss
• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Australia.

You'll also be happy to hear that air travel is safer than ever according to the website's editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas:

“Certainly, air travel is safer today than at any time in history but passengers still need to know which are the best of the best.

“Our top 20 safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.”

There is one Irish inclusion in the third and final list that was published and that was for the top 10 safest budget airlines which include:

• Aer Lingus
• Flybe
• Frontier
• HK Express
• Jetblue
• Jetstar Australia
• Thomas Cook
• Virgin America
• Vueling
• Westjet.

Unlike some low cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the thorough International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit and have excellent safety records.

So, now you know who to fly with in order to feel as safe as possible, happy booking.