To no one’s surprise, Qantas again ranked at the top of a list of safest airlines for 2020. The Australian carrier has gotten that nod six times before. At the opposite end of the list was Pakistan International, which had a fatal crash last May with 98 deaths.
In a year marked by more not-flying than flying, safety you might expect safety ratings to turn from the usual measures to how safe passengers feel flying at all. As it happens, the events of the Covid year have affected the rankings but in a different way.
The rankings, from AirlineRatings.com, usually list the number one winner, with no distinction among the other top airlines, but this year, they include in-order rankings for the top 20, with added measures used for differentiation—including how thorough the airline is in preparing idle pilots and planes to go back to work. Qantas, for instance, has a six-day training course for 737 pilots returning to work.
The rating group also created another set of ratings for this year, focusing on Covid safety ratings, rating mask policies and enforcement, deep cleaning plans, and more. There is no ‘top ten’ for that plan, but it awards airports and airlines up to five stars.
The 2020 Top Twenty for Safety:
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Air New Zealand
- Singapore Airlines
- Emirates
- EVA Air
- Etihad Airways
- Alaska Airlines
- Cathay Pacific Airways
- British Airways
- Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- American Airlines
- SAS
- Finnair
- Lufthansa
- KLM
- United Airlines
