Qantas takes top spot again as world's safest airline

Qantas takes top spot again as world's safest airline

A fatality-free record in its history has helped Qantas Airways retain its coveted title as the world's safest airline for the second year running, reported AirlineRatings.com on Tuesday.

According to the site's editors, Qantas has amassed an "an extraordinary record of firsts" in in safety and operations throughout its 94-year history and is now accepted as the world's most experienced airline.

The 10 safest airlines, ranked alphabetically, saw top full-service carriers - including Asian carriers Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific - taking the top spots.

The site said it also surveyed low cost carriers due to "public interest".

Jetstar is the only Asian budget airline to make it into the safest list. Some of the top three safest low cost carriers include Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines and Westjet.

In total, 449 airlines were surveyed and 149 received the top seven-star safety ranking. Almost 50 carriers have just three stars or less, said the site.

Four airlines achieved only one star for safety from their survey. Two of the airlines are based in Nepal and the rest from the Middle East.

AirlineRatings.com, which was launched in Jun 2013, said their methodology had a range of factors related to audits from aviation's governing bodies and government audits, and the airline's fatality record.

The editorial team also examined each airline's operational history, incident records and operational excellence to arrive at its list of top ten safest airlines.

According to AirlineRatings.com, the world's airlines carried a record 3.3. billion passengers over 27 million flights in 2014.

Though the tragedies of Malaysia Airlines flights MH370 and MH17 dominated headlines last year, AirlineRatings.com said the number of fatal accidents for the past year was at a record low of 21 - which is one accident for every 1.3 million flights.

wjeanne@sph.com.sg

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