Ranking the World’s Safest Airlines for 2023

Safety has always been an important factor when choosing an airline and that won’t change in 2023.

Fortunately, airline safety and product rating website AirlineRatings.com has announced its annual list of the world’s Top 20 Safest Airlines. Editors analyzed a whopping 385 different carriers and looked at a variety of key factors such as crashes over five years, serious incidents over two years, audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations; fleet age, expert analysis of pilot training and COVID protocols, among others to determine the safest airlines around the world.

Familiar names feature in the top 20 this year, including top-ranked Qantas. Australia’s flag carrier climbed six spots from seventh in 2022, edging out second-place Air New Zealand, which ranked first a year ago. Meanwhile, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines remain firmly in the top five in 2023, with TAP Air Portugal falling one spot to sixth.

Emirates, Alaska Airlines, EVA Air and Virgin Australia/Atlantic round out the top 10 safest airlines this year. Coming in at eighth overall, Alaska ranks as the safest U.S. airline in 2023. However, four other domestic carriers made the cut, including Hawaiian Airlines (12th), United Airlines (14th), American Airlines (19th) and Delta Air Lines (20th).

Other airlines ranked among the top 20 safest include Cathay Pacific Airways, SAS, Lufthansa/Swiss Group, Finnair, British Airways and KLM.

“All airlines have incidents every day, and many are aircraft or engine manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. It is the way the flight crew handles these incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one,” says AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas. “Our top 20 safest airlines 2023 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.”

For budget-minded travelers not looking to sacrifice on safety, AirlineRatings.com also released its list of the top 20 safest low-cost carriers for the upcoming year. They include (in alphabetical order) Air Arabia, AirAsia Group, Allegiant, Air Baltic, easyJet, FlyDubai, Frontier, Jetstar Group, JetBlue, Indigo, Ryanair, Scoot, Southwest, SpiceJet, Spirit, Vueling, Vietjet, Volaris, WestJet and Wizz.