Air New Zealand adjudged world's safest airline for 2022
Dhaka: Air New Zealand has topped the annual list of the safest airlines in the world for 2022, from AirlineRatings.com, a renowned airline safety and product review website.
The annuals safety table, which monitors 385 carriers worldwide, measures factors such as the airlines' crash and serious incident records, the age of their aircraft, as well as Covid-19 protocols and operational innovation.
The flag carrier of New Zealand was awarded first place "due to its excellent incident record, number of cockpit innovations, pilot training and very low fleet age," said Geoffrey Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of the Australia-based website.
Moreover, Etihad Airways came second, Qatar Airways third, while Singapore Airlines and TAP Portugal came fourth and fifth respectively.
Missing from the top five is the previously usual entry Qantas, which held the title of the world's safest airline from 2014 to 2017, and again 2019 to 2021.
However, this year, the Australian flag carrier came seventh due to a "slight increase in incidents coupled with the fleet age".
"The last two years have been extremely difficult for airlines with Covid-19 slashing travel and Airline Ratings editors have particularly focused on the lengths airlines are undertaking to retrain pilots ahead of a return to service," added Thomas. "Air New Zealand is a leader in this field with comprehensive retraining," he claimed.
The airline also received praise for being a world leader in operational safety advancements over the past four decades. Its various initiatives include recently becoming one of the first airlines in the world to trial the use of Assaia Apron AI technology to improve its aircraft turn times.
"Air New Zealand has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail while caring for its flight crews who have worked under significant stress," Thomas mentioned.
Sometimes, AirlineRatings choses to simply name its winner, before listing the rest of the top airlines alphabetically. However, the website has recently ranked each of the top 20 airlines in numerical order, revealing some significant movement from year to year.
AirlineRatings.com's top ten safest airlines for 2022: (1) Air New Zealand; (2) Etihad Airways; (3) Qatar Airways; (4) Singapore Airlines; (5) TAP Air Portugal; (6) SAS; (7) Qantas; (8) Alaska Airlines; (9) EVA Air; and (10) Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic.
