A report published by AirlineRatings.com on Tuesday praised Qantas for tallying up “an extraordinary record of firsts” in safety and operations across its 94-year history.
The new report came after what was classed as a troubled year for airline safety, including some of the industry’s most tragic and, frankly, outlandish incidents.
The ratings systems adopted by AirlineRatings.com considers a raft of indicators pertaining to audits from aviations governing bodies, in addition to government audits and recorded fatality data of various international carriers.
“Certainly, 21 fatal accidents with 986 fatalities, higher than the 10-year average, is sickening. However, the world’s airlines carried a record 3.3 billion passengers on 27 million flights,” the report stated.
AirlineRatings.com also noted the high number of deaths were in contrast to the number of accidents for 2014 coming in at a record low of just 21 incidents, which works out as one in 1.3 million flights.
“Two of the crashes last year, MH370 and MH17, were unprecedented in modern times and claimed 537 lives,” the report added. “Flashback 50 years and there were a staggering 87 crashes killing 1,597 when airlines carried only 141 million passengers; five per cent of today’s number.”
In addition, Qantas was accepted as the world’s most experienced airline and was hailed the leader in terms of real-time monitoring of its fleet engines, using satellite communications. “Doing so allows [it] to detect problems before they become a major safety issue,” the report said.
The Australian carrier developed an avionics system between the pilot and air traffic controller as well as flight data recorders to monitor aircraft and crew performance.
The remaining top 10 airlines were Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.
AirlineRatings.com editor Geoffrey Thomas said the top ten safest airlines were invariably at the forefront of safety innovation and the launch of new aircraft. “These airlines are a byword for excellence,” he added. “There is no doubt that Qantas is a standout in safety enhancements and an industry benchmark for best practice.”
“Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major advancement in airline safety over the past 60 years,” said Thomas.
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