by Penne Cole

Created on: September 02, 2011   Last Updated: September 03, 2011

Statistically speaking, air travel is the safest mode of travel in terms of deaths per billion passenger kilometers. However, news reports of plane crashes due to failed engines, bad weather, and even freak accidents like bird strikes still pepper the headlines. The European Commission has even published a distressingly long blacklist of airlines that do not meet the minimum safety criteria. In the midst of these doom and gloom stories, Switzerland-based Air Transport Rating Agency (

ATRA) has released a breath of fresh air, publishing a list of the ten safest airlines in the world.

Using a dataset of 100 of the world’s most important airlines in the “whitelist”, ATRA, an organization that is “totally independent from airlines, manufacturers, regulatory authorities, trade unions and not-for-profit organizations” has compiled a list of the ten airlines with the most holistic safety profiles. While European and American airlines aren’t well known for their customer service, it is perhaps comforting to note that they compensate with a focus on safety as ATRA’s list is dominated by European and American airlines. Conversely, none of the airlines that were on Skytrax’s top ten list of airlines in terms of customer service have appeared on ATRA’s list.

The top ten safest airlines, in alphabetical order, are:

Air France-KLM
AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles)
British Airways
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Japan Airlines
Lufthansa
Southwest Airlines
United Airlines
US Airways

Airlines do not all have the same safety profiles. However, information on airlines’ safety records may not always be available. ATRA completed this study with the goal of providing rigorous and transparent information to the aviation industry.

ATRA compared the airlines based on 15 key measures along several dimensions. A key measure is the airlines’ previous safety record, as measured by the number of accidents during the last ten years. The study also tracks the airlines’ financial results as well as operational statistics, including the total number of passengers and employees (cabin crew and non-cabin crew) as well as total aircraft kilometers flown. In addition, the study looks at the airlines’ fleet, including the average age of the aircraft, the homogeneity of the fleet, the number of aircrafts, percentage of aircrafts on order, number of obsolete aircrafts or aircrafts no longer in production, and the number of aircrafts considered at risk. ATRA also tracked in-house maintenance capability and training facilities, including whether the airline has a dedicated flight academy with pilot-training facilities, and dedicated full flight simulators. The study does not take into account illegal activities.  

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