Top 10 Safest Airlines

Earlier this summer, independent Swiss organization Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) released its list of the ten safest airlines determined by its “holistic safety rating” of the ninety-two largest airlines worldwide by financial revenues.

ATRA goes beyond the single criteria of accident statistics to create safety profiles of each airline - among the fifteen criteria used in judging were age of fleet, number of accidents in the last ten years, and maintenance expenses.

Despite recent near-misses on the runway and needles found in in-flight meals, these are deemed to be the safest carriers in the sky (airlines in alphabetical order):

North America: Canada and the U.S. enjoyed the majority of the rankings, with Air Canada, American Airlines/American Eagle, Delta (NYSE:DAL), Southwest (NYSE:LUV), United-Continental (NYSE:UAL) and U.S. Airways (NYSE:LCC) all making the list.

Euro Zone: Air France-KLM, British Air and Lufthansa were the shining stars for Europe.

Asia-Pac: The lone standout for this region was Australian carrier Qantas.

As a disclaimer, airlines not listed on ATRA’s top ten list are by no means considered unsafe to fly. The European Union does publish a “black list” of airlines that do not meet safety standards, but ATRA wanted to further analyze the safety-compliant carriers because “there are real differences in terms of safety profiles among the other airlines belonging to the "white list"”.