Radio New Zealand
Auckland, January 14, 2025
When taking a trip, you cannot guarantee that things will not go wrong, but you can choose an airline brand that you trust and a New Zealand brand has proven to be a safe bet.
Air New Zealand has been announced as one of the safest airlines in the world, according to Airline Ratings, an Australian-based airline safety and product rating website and its safest airlines list for 2025.
The website rated the safety and in-flight products of 385 airlines, and given that low-cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different, the company constructed a different rating system for each one.
Air New Zealand on Top
Air New Zealand took the top spot as the Safest Full-Service Airline, while Hong Kong Express was ranked the Safest Low-Cost Airline.
Following Air New Zealand as the Safest Full-Service Airline was Qantas, with a three-way tie between Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and Emirates for third.
Ryanair was third on the list of the Safest Low-Cost Airline.
Chief Executive of Airline Ratings Sharon Peterson said that the race between the top airlines was tight. “It was extremely close again between Air New Zealand and Qantas for first place with only 1.50 points separating the two airlines. Whilst both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continue to have a younger fleet than Qantas which separates the two,” she said.
Ms Peterson said that the three-way tie for third place was simply because they could not separate the airlines.
“From fleet age to pilot skill, safety practices, fleet size, and number of incidents, their scores were identical,” she said.
In the previous listing, Air New Zealand ranked fourth among the top Premium Airlines and Jetstar took the top spot as the Safest Low-Cost Airline in the world. In 2023, Air New Zealand was also crowned the top airline in the world, which was then based on a seven-star safety rating that incorporated leadership in innovation for passenger comfort.
The Grading Process
How were airlines graded this year?
To rank airline brands, Airline Ratings assessed carriers according to different rating systems categorised by Low-Cost, Regional and Full-Service Airlines.
The company used nine criteria that were evaluated in the appropriate contexts. They were (1) Serious incidents over the past two years (2) Fleet Age (3) Fleet Size (4) Rate of Incidents (5) Fatalities (6) Profitability (7) Pilot Skill and Training (8) IOSA Certification and ICAO Country Audit Pass
The World’s Safest Full-Service Airlines: 1. Air New Zealand 2. Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Emirates 3. Virgin Australia 4. Etihad Airways 5. ANA 6. EVA Air 7. Korean Air
The World’s Safest Low-Cost Airlines: (1) Hong Kong Express (2) Jetstar Group (3) Ryanair
EasyJet (4) Frontier Airlines (5) AirAsia (6) Wizz Air (7) VietJet Air (8) Southwest Airlines (9) Volaris
The above Report and picture have been published under a special agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
