Ryanair and easyJet in top 5 of prestigious world’s best budget airline awards
THE world’s safest airlines for 2025 have been named – with British Airways, Ryanair, easyJet and Jet2 among the frontrunners.
Aviation website AirlineRatings analyses a range of factors to determine which full-service airline comes out on top out of the 385 carriers it monitors.
Factors include crashes over the past five years as well as any serious incidents within the last two years.
Other criteria are also considered, including government audits, the age of aircraft, the size of an airline’s fleet and crew training.
AirlineRatings.com, which has been conducting its World’s Safest Airline rankings since 2012, crowned Air New Zealand the winner for the second year in a row.
Air New Zealand was followed by Qantas.
Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and Emirates all tied for third place, with Virgin Australia taking fourth.
Turkish Airlines (THY) was the first European carrier to make the list coming in tenth place, followed by TAP Portugal in 11th.
Meanwhile, British Airways took 15th place.
Not only was it the only UK airline to make the list, it also held onto the same position as last year.
European airlines Finnair and Lufthansa/Swiss also made the top 25.
The safest budget airlines were also revealed – with Ryanair and easyJet coming in third and fourth place, respectively.
The Brit-favourite budget airlines were beaten by Hong Kong Express and Jetstar Group.
Wizz Air took seventh place, while Jet2 was named 14th in the rankings and Eurowings came in at 20th.
AirlineRatings.com CEO Sharon Petersen, said: “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.
“The three-way tie for third place was because we simply could not separate these airlines. From fleet age to pilot skill, safety practices, fleet size, and number of incidents, their scores were identical.”
Last year the Sun’s Deputy Travel Editor, Kara Godfrey, flew Qatar Airways, one of the best airlines in the world, here’s how it went.
Meanwhile, the Sun’s Assistant Travel Editor flew business class from London to Sydney with Emirates; here’s how it went.
Full list of the top 25 Full-Service Airlines for 2025
HERE are the top 25 Safest Low-Cost Airlines for 2025.
- Hong Kong Express
- Jetstar Group
- Ryanair
- easyJet
- Frontier Airlines
- AirAsia
- Wizz Air
- VietJet Air
- Southwest Airlines
- Volaris
- flydubai
- Norwegian
- Vueling
- Jet2
- Sun Country Airlines
- WestJet
- JetBlue Airways
- Air Arabia
- IndiGo
- Eurowings
- Allegiant Air
- Cebu Pacific
- ZipAir
- SKY Airline
- Air Baltic
We also tried out Finnair’s unusual non-reclining business class.
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