Ten companies operating at Faro Airport have been included in AirlineRatings.com’s latest list of safest airlines around the world.
Globally, six airlines servicing the Algarve region through Faro were included in the top 20: TAP Air Portugal (the highest, at sixth), SAS (13th), United Airlines, Lufthansa/Swiss Group (15th), Finnair (16th), British Airways (17th) and KLM (18th).
The rating agency also identified its editors’ top 10 safest low-cost airlines, with the list (in alphabetical order) including EasyJet, Ryanair, Vueling and Wizz.
According to AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas, “Our ‘Top Twenty Safest Airlines’ are all standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation and launching of new aircraft. In fact, the margins between these top 20 airlines are very small; they are all outstanding airlines.”
When making its annual evaluation, AirlineRatings takes into account a comprehensive range of factors including: serious incidents, fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment and fleet age.
Australian airline Qantas headed the global list, with Air New Zealand, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines completing the top five.
As for the low-cost airline list, AirlineRatings stressed that all had passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and had good safety records.
Noting that the site only looked at serious incidents in making its determinations, Thomas said, “All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one. So just lumping all incidents together is very misleading. And some country’s incident reporting systems are weak, further complicating matters.”
Launched in June 2013, AirlineRatings rates the safety and in-flight products of 385 airlines using its own seven-star rating system. “It has been used by millions of passengers from 180 countries and has become the industry standard for safety, product and safety rating. The editorial team is one of the world’s most experienced. with almost 50 international and national awards. They have also authored or co-authored more than 28 industry books.”