AirlineRatings, an airline safety and review site, has released its ranking for the world’s safest airlines to fly in 2025. Using its own seven-star rating system, the site gives us a peek into which carriers are doing well in the safety stakes.

To assess which airlines are the safest, AirlineRatings uses data on everything from recent incidents to audits and certifications from industry bodies. It also considers fleet size and age, profitability and other metrics in its calculations.

Air New Zealand is the world’s safest airline (again)

AirlineRatings puts Air New Zealand at the top of the table when it comes to safety. The Kiwi airline claimed top spot in 2024 and in 2022 and regularly vies for the title of safest airline alongside its antipodean neighbor. 

Air New Zealand

Despite operating in challenging locations like Queenstown Airport – surrounded by mountains – and Wellington with its unpredictable winds, Air New Zealand has had no serious incidents or crashes in the modern jet era. 

“It was extremely close again between Air New Zealand and Qantas for first place with only 1.50 points separating the two airlines,” said Sharon Petersen, CEO at AirlineRatings. “Whilst both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continues to have a younger fleet than Qantas which separates the two.”

She further noted that it was too difficult to separate the airlines that shared a three-way tie for bronze position—Cathay, Qatar, and Emirates—as their scores were identical in all categories.

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