AirlineRatings.com has named Australia's flag carrier airline Qantas as the world's safest airline for the third year in a row, according to the Telegraph. The site, launched in 2013, serves as a feedback-driven ratings site that collects user reviews and other information to provide information about airports and airlines worldwide and annually presents listings of their findings as awards.
Qantas has come first for aviation safety out of the 407 airlines that AirlineRatings.com monitors, making it the third consecutive year that the airline has received the award, according to CNN. There are many criteria that AirlineRatings.com takes into account when deciding upon the award, which they detail on their site as including "factors related to audits from aviation's governing bodies and lead associations as well as government audits and the airline's fatality record."
Others that made it into the top 20 were American Airlines, Emirates, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, according to Yahoo! News.
The AirlineRatings.com editors also took note of public interest and released a list of the top ten safest airlines that are low cost but have still passed the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit and have good safety records.
In alphabetical order, these are: Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.
The AirlineRatings.com editors noted that Qantac took the title of world's safest airline again as a result of its 95-year history in which it has achieved "an extraordinary record of firsts in operations and safety and is now accepted as the industry's most experienced carrier."
The airline was also praised for its use of technologies such as the Flight Data Recorder to monitor plane and crew performance and real-time monitoring of engines, which AirlineRatings.com editors say has allowed the airline to "detect problems before they become a major safety issue."
