Top 10 safest airlines for 2021

Expecting that in 2021 we will be able to travel more with less restrictions it is useful to have on mind the safest airlines. AirlineRatings, which monitors 385 airlines around the world, measuring factors such as plane crashes, serious accident records and the age of the airplanes, has released its list with the safest airlines for 2021.

The Australian Qantas holds the first place of the list. One of the facts that helped the airline become the safest was the decision to retrain its pilots before returning to their positions after the end of the pandemic. In particular, a pilot must take a six days course before returning to the cockpit.

It should be noticed that Qantas held the first place of the list from 2014 to 2017. The year 2018 AirlineRatings could not decide for the winner. In 2019 and 2020 Qantas returned to the first place.

Qatar Airways holds the second place of the list. The Covid-19 pandemic strongly impacted the airline. In order to face the consequences of the pandemic the company was forced to reduce its staff during 2020. Qatar Airways responded immediately to its customers’ changing needs, gaining their trust.

Air New Zealand holds the third place of the list. The airline takes safety very seriously so it is said that it could require coronavirus vaccinations when international flights will return to normal. Air New Zealand despite reporting a strong interim profit of $198 million for the first six months of 2020, Covid-19 related travel restrictions resulted in a 74% drop in passenger revenue from April to the end of June compared to the prior year, which drove the airline’s operating losses.

Singapore Airlines follows next. Singapore Airlines was at the first place of the list in 2019. The Group reported a net loss of 3,5 billion dollars at the first half of 2020. Passenger flown revenue fell sharply as Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot were severely impacted by restrictions on international travel.

Emirates comes at the fifth place of the list. The airline has not reported any crash in the 30 years of its operation. Emirates occupies 59.519 employees as of 31 March 2020. Emirates recently decided to suspend flights to and from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The measure was deemed necessary to tackle the mutated virus from Britain found in Queensland.

EVA Air comes at sixth place of the list. Its base is at Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. EVA Air celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2019. Compared to 2018, the company’s annual revenue in 2019 reached a plateau with NT$ 135.6 billion, while 12.83 million passengers were carried, hitting another record high.

Etihad Airways (7^th place of the list) in an effort to deal with Covid-19 and provide highly acceptable health and safety measures to its customers, launched “Etihad Wellness”, an expanded and more comprehensive health and hygiene program and customer guide. It is worth mentioning that Etihad Airways has been awarded the Diamond status in the “APEX Health Safety, powered by SimpliFlying” audit, for efforts in ensuring the highest standards of cleanliness and sanitisation.

Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airway and British Airways complete the top 10 safest airlines for 2021. Alaska Airlines (8^th place of the list) and its regional partners serve more than 115 destinations across the United States and North America. Also, Alaska Airlines recently announced two new routes from its key hubs in Southern California that will begin flying this spring. The airline will launch daily, nonstop service between Los Angeles (LAX) and Austin on March 18, with an increase to three daily departures on May 20. Daily, nonstop service between San Diego and New York JFK starts on April 4.

Cathay Pacific (9^th place of the list) announced earlier this month the opening of WhatsApp as a channel for its customers to contact with the company whenever they need to. Cathay Pacific customers can now reach out to the airline in Hong Kong over WhatsApp to receive information on a range of enquiries relating to their bookings.

Lastly, British Airways (10^th place of the list) recently announced a new partnership with Michelin-starred chef, Tom Kerridge as part of 2021 focus on Euro Traveller.