Despite the rising cost of air travel, recent incidents at Tokyo Airport and on Alaska Airlines could encourage nervous travellers to identify the type of aircraft scheduled for their trip when they search for airfares, as well as the airline’s safety record.

The platform Airlinesratings.com sets a benchmark for identifying the world’s safest airlines. According to this site, you’d be better off with a New Zealand, Australian or Middle Eastern carrier, since Air New Zealand, Qantas and Virgin Australia take the top three places, respectively, in the list of top 25 safest airlines for 2024 – published before this month’s various incidents.

These are followed by Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, and Emirates.

To establish this ranking, the site analysed crashes over five years, serious incidents over two years, audits by aviation governing bodies and major organisations, government audits, fleet age, and crew training.

Despite the recent incidents, Asian companies are considered to be performing well: not only is All Nippon Airways (Japan) in 7th place, but Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) is also well placed (9th).

Conversely, Europe is only represented in the top 10 by Finnair (Finland). Scandinavian carriers are the highest ranking in terms of safety, with SAS (Sweden) in 11th place; while other major European carriers, such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, are ranked 15th, 18th and 23rd.

Meanwhile, Airlinesratings.com has also revealed its list of safest low-cost carriers for 2024. Passengers on a budget will find that EasyJet and Ryanair rank second and third, respectively, while Australian performance is reaffirmed with Jetstar in the top spot.

Here are the top 25 safest airlines, according to Airlinesratings.com:

1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Virgin Australia
4. Etihad Airways
5. Qatar Airways
6. Emirates
7. All Nippon Airways
8. Finnair
9. Cathay Pacific Airways
10. Alaska Airlines
11. SAS
12. Korean Air
13. Singapore Airlines
14. EVA Air
15. British Airways
16. Turkish Airlines
17. TAP Air Portugal
18. Lufthansa/Swiss Group
19. KLM
20. Japan Airlines
21. Hawaiian Airlines
22. American Airlines
23. Air France
24. Air Canada Group
25. United Airlines

And the top 20 safest low-cost carriers:

1. Jetstar
2. easyJet
3. Ryanair
4. Wizz
5. Norwegian
6. Frontier
7. Vueling
8. Vietjet
9. Southwest
10. Volaris
11. flydubai
12. AirAsia
13. Cebu Pacific
14. Sun Country
15. Spirit
16. Westjet
17. JetBlue
18. Air Arabia
19. Indigo
20. Eurowings