Airline auditing website, AirlineRatings has unveiled its report on the safest airlines in the world and in the full-service category, the Top 10 probably won’t be a surprise, but it only features one UK airline.
Compiling the list used data analysis which considers incident rates adjusted for the total number of flights, fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training and international safety audits. The 2026 list also saw AirlinerRatings put a greater emphasis on turbulence protection.
CEO Sharon Petersen was keen to point out that the margins separating the airlines were very narrow and the list is not an indicator of there being large gaps in safety between the carriers.
She explained: “What stands out this year is how little separates the leaders. Less than four points covered positions one through 14, and at the very top the margins were even tighter, with just 1.3 points separating positions one through six in the full service category. We may be reaching a point where traditional rankings risk being misleading, and where grouping airlines into performance tiers provides a more accurate reflection of reality. All airlines in the Top 25 are world leaders in aviation safety, and claims that one is significantly safer or less safe than another are both sensationalist and false.”
For UK Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airlines are the only two full-service airlines and they both are in the top 25 at 13th and 18th respectively. On the low-cost front (which includes charter and holiday airlines) easyJet, Tui UK, Jet2 and Ryanair all feature at 5th, 11th, 17th and 18th respectively.
Top 25 Safest Full-Service Airlines
- Etihad
- Cathay Pacific
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Emirates
- Air New Zealand
- Singapore Airlines
- EVA Air
- Virgin Australia
- Korean Air
- STARLUX
- Turkish Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- ANA
- Alaska Airlines
- TAP Air Portugal
- SAS
- British Airways
- Vietnam Airlines
- Iberia
- Lufthansa
- Air Canada
- Delta
- American Airlines
- Fiji Airways
Top 25 Safest Low-Cost Airlines
- HK Express
- Jetstar Airways
- Scoot
- flydubai (Now considered a full-service airline and will be assessed accordingly in future publications.)
- EasyJet Group
- Southwest
- airBaltic
- VietJet Air
- Wizz Air Group
- AirAsia Group
- TUI UK
- Vueling
- Norwegian
- JetBlue
- FlyNAS
- Cebu Pacific
- Jet2
- Ryanair Ireland and UK
- Spring Airlines China
- Transavia Group
- Eurowings Group
- Volaris
- WestJet Group
- GOL
- SKY Airline Chile
Red the report in full https://www.airlineratings.com/articles/worlds-safest-airlines-for-2026