All of the UAE carriers – both full-fledged and budget – have been ranked among the world’s 20 safest airlines of 2023.
According to AirlineRatings.com, flydubai, Air Arabia and Wizz Air were ranked among the world’s 20 safest low-cost airlines of 2023. Etihad Airways and Emirates were named in the list of safest full-fledged airlines.
Among other budget carriers that made it to the list were AirAsia, Allegiant, Air Baltic, easyjet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Indigo, Ryanair, Scoot, Southwest, Spicejet, Spirit, Vueling, Vietjet, Volaris, and Westjet.
The full-fledged carriers list, meanwhile, includes Qantas, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air, Alaska Airlines, EVA Air, Virgin Australia/Atlantic, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, SAS, United Airlines, Lufthansa/Swiss Group, Finnair, British Airways, KLM, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines.
The study, which covered 385 airlines, used factors such as incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the governing body of aviation – The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), EU banned lists and fleet age.
Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings, said 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,” he said.
The UAE has become a global aviation hub, connecting almost all the major countries around the world through its six airlines. In addition, dozens of foreign carriers also operate direct flights to hundreds of destinations around the world.