Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai (SHP)

Dubai, Jan 2: Etihad and Emirates are in the list of the top 20 safest airlines, while Air Arabia is in the list of top 10 low-cost carriers.

As per AirlineRatings.com, a safety and product rating website, which also rated the 3 UAE airlines, Qantas is the safest airline for 2020, out of the 405 airlines it monitors.

The top 20 are Qantas, Air New Zealand, EVA Air, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Alaska Airlines, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Australia, Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, TAP Portugal, SAS, Royal Jordanian, Swiss, Finnair, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and KLM.

"These airlines are clear standouts in the airline industry and are at the forefront of safety," said editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings, Geoffrey Thomas. He asserted that the Australian airlines Qantas was recognised by the British Advertising Standards Association in a test case in 2008 as the world's most experienced airline.

"Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the pure-jet era," Thomas added.

The website also listed their top 10 safest low-cost airlines. These are in alphabetical order: Air Arabia, Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, IndiGo, Jetblue, Volaris, Vueling, Westjet and Wizz.

To make the cut, AirlineRatings.com editors and its industry advisors take into account numerous critical factors that include: audits from aviation's governing bodies and lead associations, government audits, airline's crash and serious incident record, fleet age, financial position and pilot training and culture.

"All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft or engine manufacture issues instead of airline operational problems. And 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," said Thomas.