Fly only with them: The safest airlines in the world for 2025

The year 2025 has just begun, and the rankings of the safest airlines to fly with this year have already been published. At the top are airlines from Oceania.

By ZIV REINSTEIN

JANUARY 27, 2025 19:50

Air New Zealand (photo credit: SHUTTERSTOCK) — Air New Zealand

(photo credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

Who is the safest airline in the world? According to the Australian aviation website AirlineRatings, they are Air New Zealand and Qantas, naturally. Not that they aren’t already considered safe, but Qantas and its neighbor from New Zealand consistently dominate the top spots in the site's rankings.

Incidentally, another Australian airline that achieved a respectable position is Virgin Australia, ranked fourth among the ten safest airlines for 2025. The third spot is shared by several airlines: Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and Emirates. According to AirlineRatings' CEO, Geoffrey Thomas, "The three-way tie for third place occurred because we simply couldn’t separate these airlines. From fleet age to pilot skills, safety procedures, fleet size, and incident numbers, their scores were identical."

AirlineRatings monitors 385 regular and low-cost airlines worldwide. The safest airlines ranking, published yesterday, reveals new entries into the top ten safest list.

Singapore Airlines (credit: official site, Singapore Airlines)

Iberia and Vietnam Airlines Enter the List

Compared to last year's list (2024), some of the most significant changes include the inclusion of Iberia and Vietnam Airlines (making their debut in the rankings) and the rise of Korean Air into the top ten. A notable absence this year is Singapore Airlines and KLM. According to Thomas, while these airlines remain exceptionally safe and maintain their seven-star safety ratings, they narrowly missed a spot this year due to incidents that occurred.

The safest airlines in the world are determined based on various categories, including major incidents over the past two years, fleet age and size, incident rates, fatalities, profitability, compliance with ICAO audits, and pilot training. Factors such as financial instability and fault in crashes automatically disqualify an airline, while how incidents are handled can improve safety profiles, as seen in the case of Japan Airlines Flight 516.

Onboard problems also contribute to incidents, such as the recent cabin depressurization on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, attributed to Boeing's quality control.

How Safe Is Flying?

Between 2018 and 2022, the global risk of dying in a plane crash was just one in 13.7 million, underscoring the relative safety of flying compared to road travel, which causes over 1.19 million deaths annually.

Incidentally, El Al, like other Israeli airlines, did not make it into this year’s top 25 safest airlines. Turkish Airlines, once Israel's most active airline but no longer flying here for some time, rounds out the top ten. Here are the top 25.