Photo: Alamy
An annual survey of the world’s biggest airlines has seen Qantas named the world’s safest for the third year running, reports.
The Australian carrier was praised for its “extraordinary fatality-free record in the jet era”, while Virgin Atlantic was the only UK airline to make it into the top 20.
In a separate ranking for low-cost airlines, two British carriers featured – Flybe and Thomas Cook.
The lists were compiled by, an independent plane safety and product rating website.
The website provided safety ratings for 407 airlines, awarding them up to seven stars for safety. Of those surveyed, 148 were given the top seven-star safety ranking but almost 50 had just three stars or less.
The website’s star ratings take mutliple factors into account, including whether an airline has been certified by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), if it is on the EU’s airline blacklist, its crash record and whether the fleet has been grounded over safety concerns. A star is removed if the airline operates only Russian-made aircraft.
Along with Qantas, other airlines to make the top 20 included Air New Zealand, American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Swiss, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.