List of the Safest Airlines

Airline crashes often put fear into the flying public. But the fact is that flying is usually much safer than driving, especially in North America. In fact, several U.S. airlines have never had a fatal crash.

Southwest Airlines

The world's safest airline is Southwest Airlines, which as of August 2009 has had 15.26 million flights without a single passenger fatality.

Other U.S Carriers

Three other North American airlines have never had a passenger fatality as of August 2009. They are American Trans Air (which ceased flying in 2008), Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue Airlines.

Europe

Among the European airlines with at least 5 million flights, the safest is British Airways. For every 1 million passengers, the airline averages 0.17 fatalities. As of August 2009, It has also not had a death on a flight since 1985.

Asia

In Asia, All Nippon Airways not only has the most flights, but also the best safety record. The airline averages 0.22 fatalities per 1 million passengers and has not had a reported death since 1971.

History

Of the North American carriers, only two have had more than 10 fatal crashes in their history. As of August 2009, United Airlines has had 11 reported incidents and American Airlines has had 13.

References

• Fatal Passenger Event Rate By Airline Since 1970