These are the safest airlines to fly in 2024

Travelling by air has typically been considered to be one of the safest means of travel, as indicated by data obtained by the American Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) from 2010 to 2019. However, with a recent string of highly publicised mishaps occurring over the past number of months, it begs to question: just which airlines are the safest to travel in, based on their safety ratings around the world?

At the beginning of the year, AirlineRatings.com, the current gold standard for airline safety and product rating reviews, selected the top 25 safest airlines in the world. The rating criteria included: whether the airline experienced a fatal crash in the last 5 years, if the airline suffered numerous serious pilot-related incidents, if the airline and its country of origin passed all the major audits, and more. The number and severity of the incidents were measured against the number of flights and the age of each airline’s fleet.

Air New Zealand took the top spot of 2024’s safest airline from last year’s winner, Qantas, which came second this year. The rest of the top 5 consisted of Virgin Australia, Etihad, and Qatar Airways in that order. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways was ranked 9th overall.

Below, we’ve also provided a top 5 list of the youngest aircraft fleets with at least 100 aircraft and a list of the youngest airline fleets in Asia. The youngest in Asia and the world is Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines, with an average aircraft age of just 2.04 years. Meanwhile, the youngest aircraft fleet with 100+ aircraft is IndiGO Airlines, a low-cost airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

On a side note, experts report that air turbulence is increasing in both frequency and severity due to factors surrounding climate change. However, serious injury from turbulence like that which occurred on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 is still extremely rare, with the last death on a commercial flight reported in 1997 during an American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu.

Take a look at the safest and youngest airlines lists below.

25 safest airlines in the world for 2024, according to AirlineRatings.com:

1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Virgin Australia
4. Etihad Airways
5. Qatar Airways
6. Emirates
7. All Nippon Airways
8. Finnair
9. Cathay Pacific Airways
10. Alaska Airlines
11. SAS
12. Korean Air
13. Singapore Airlines
14. EVA Air
15. British Airways
16. Turkish Airlines
17. TAP Air Portugal
18. Lufthansa/Swiss Group
19. KLM
20. Japan Airlines
21. Hawaiian Airlines
22. American Airlines
23. Air France
24. Air Canada Group
25. United Airlines

Top 5 Youngest aircraft fleets with 100+ aircraft in their fleet:

1. IndiGO Airlines (Asia): 3.94 years
2. Frontier Airlines (North America): 4.38 years
3. Wizz Air (Europe): 4.42 years
4. Pegasus Airlines (Europe): 4.53 years
5. Volaris (North America): 5.82 years

*Years shown indicate average aircraft age averages as of January 2024 according to ch-aviation.

Asia’s Top 5 youngest aircraft fleets:

1. Starlux Airlines: 2.04 years
2. Vistara: 2.94 years
3. flyadeal: 3.10 years
4. Genghis Khan Airlines: 3.51 years
5. Peach Aviation: 3.74 years

*Years shown indicate average aircraft age averages as of January 2024 according to ch-aviation.

Images: Anadolu/Getty Images