Air New Zealand Tops the List of Safest Airlines for 2025 According to AirlineRatings Survey

AirlineRatings, an airline rating agency, announced the top 25 safest airlines for 2024. Air New Zealand and Hong Kong Express Airways came in first place.

The ranking is based on a comprehensive evaluation of various factors over the past two years, including major accidents, fleet age, expected scale, accident rates, fatalities, profitability, IOSA certification and country-specific audits, as well as pilot skills and training, and is announced annually. This year’s survey covered 385 companies.

The rankings were divided between full-service airlines and low-cost carriers (LCC), with Air New Zealand winning for the second consecutive year among full-service airlines, and Hong Kong Express Airways topping the list for the first time among LCCs.

Among full-service airlines, Air New Zealand topped the list with a 1.50 point difference from the second place, Qantas Airways. The young age of Air New Zealand’s fleet was cited as a reason for the difference. Third place was shared by three companies with identical scores. Compared to 2024, Iberia Airlines and Vietnam Airlines were added, and Korean Air made it into the top 10. Singapore Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines were excluded from the ranking due to the impact of incidents.

In the LCC category, Hong Kong Express Airways, which has not had any major accidents to date, ranked first, surpassing the Jetstar Group. ZIPAIR Tokyo, Jet2, and AirBaltic were newly ranked, while bankrupt Spirit Airlines was excluded from the list.

■Top 25 Safest Airlines for 2025 (previous year’s rank in parentheses)
1st: Air New Zealand (1)
2nd: Qantas Airways (2)
3rd: Cathay Pacific Airways (9), Qatar Airways (5), Emirates (6)
4th: Virgin Australia (3)
5th: Etihad Airways (4)
6th: All Nippon Airways (ANA) (7)
7th: EVA Air (14)
8th: Korean Air (12)
9th: Alaska Airlines (10)
10th: Turkish Airlines (16)
11th: TAP Air Portugal (17)
12th: Hawaiian Airlines (21)
13th: American Airlines (22)
14th: Scandinavian Airlines (11)
15th: British Airways (15)
16th: Iberia Airlines (-)
17th: Finnair (8)
18th: Lufthansa German Airlines/Swiss International Air Lines (18)
19th: Japan Airlines (JAL) (20)
20th: Air Canada (24)
21st: Delta Air Lines (21)
22nd: Vietnam Airlines (-)
23rd: United Airlines (25)

■Top 25 Safest LCCs for 2025
1st: Hong Kong Express Airways
2nd: Jetstar Group
3rd: Ryanair
4th: easyJet
5th: Frontier Airlines
6th: AirAsia
7th: Wizz Air
8th: VietJet Air
9th: Southwest Airlines
10th: Volaris
11th: Flydubai
12th: Norwegian Air Shuttle
13th: Bueling Airlines
14th: Jet2
15th: Sun Country Airlines
16th: WestJet
17th: JetBlue Airways
18th: Air Arabia
19th: IndiGo
20th: Eurowings
21st: Allegiant Air
22nd: Cebu Pacific
23rd: ZIPAIR Tokyo
24th: Sky Airline
25th: Air Baltic