Air New Zealand takes the top spot for safest airline in 2023

AirlineRatings ranked Air New Zealand as the safest airline in the world in 2023, with the airline taking over the top spot from Australia’s Qantas by a narrow margin, according to the website, which has published a list of over 45 airlines that were considered the safest in 2023. Geoffrey Thomas, the Editor-in-Chief at AirlineRatings, said that the site’s top twenty-five safest airlines are “all standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft.” As such, the “safety margins between these top twenty-five airlines are very small.” “Between Air New Zealand and Qantas, there are only 1.5 points, it’s incredibly close.” Thomas also remarked that the airline operates in some of the most challenging weather environments, testing pilots’ skills constantly with difficult approaches at Wellington International Airport and Queenstown Airport. According to the site, when evaluating an airline, it considers a range of factors that include “serious incidents, recent fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment and fleet age.” However, bird strikes, turbulence injuries, weather diversions, and lightning strikes are not accounted for since “the airline has no control over such events.”<br/>