Countless man-hours are dedicated to aircraft design, maintenance and security each year, allowing we passengers to basically take airline safety for granted.
Let’s face it – the tiny bit of attention we pay to the pre-take off safety announcement is as close as most of us get to considering the risks of flying. Unless, of course, you’re on this guy’s flight.
The old adage “flying is the safest form of travel” pretty much holds true in the mind of the average aeroplane passenger, even if it’s virtually impossible to prove – even Johnny Five would struggle to process all the relevant info.
However, for all that, there’s no harm in knowing which airlines have the best safety records – especially if you’re one of the unlucky few who suffer from fear of flying.
Most airline safety ratings are based solely on accident statistics. Obviously, they’re telling, but a Swiss organisation thinks it has created a better way of measuring airline safety.
In its “holistic safety rating”, the Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) uses 15 different criteria – including things like the age of an airline’s fleet and the number of different aircraft it operates – to rate an airline’s relative safety.
This is the second year ATRA have published their ratings. This time around they looked at the world’s 92 most important airlines in terms of financial revenues.
From that they determined the ten safest airlines to fly with today. In alphabetical order, they are:
• Air Canada
• Air France-KLM
• AMR Corporation (American Airlines and American Eagle)
• Delta
• International Airlines Group (British Airways)
• Lufthansa
• Qantas
• Southwest Airlines
• United-Continental Holdings
• US Airways
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
(Image: Kuster & Wildhaber Photography)
