There's a New Safest Airline in the World for 2026

"Every year, the safety experts at Airline Ratings examine 320 airlines around the globe to tabulate overall safety scores. The company uses data such as safety incident rates versus the airline's total number of flights, fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training, and international safety audits to calculate every carriers' ranking. In 2026, the company found impressive results for more than two dozen carriers."

"In 2026, the company found impressive results for more than two dozen carriers. "What stands out this year is how little separates the leaders," Sharon Petersen, Airline Ratings' CEO, said in a statement. The top 6 airlines were separated by a margin of just 1.3 points, according to Petersen, and positions 1 through 14 spanned a difference of less than four points."

"That means that passengers should feel secure boarding any of the airlines on the list. Each carrier in the rankings had incident rates of 0.09 per flight or less. "All airlines in the Top 25 are world leaders in aviation safety, and claims that one is significantly safer or less safe than another are both sensationalist and false," Petersen said. New to the scoring in 2026 is a greater emphasis placed on turbulence prevention, as it is currently the leading cause of in-flight injuries,"

Airline Ratings evaluates 320 airlines worldwide and assigns safety scores using metrics including safety incident rates relative to total flights, fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training, and international safety audits. The 2026 rankings show more than two dozen carriers with notably low incident rates; the top six airlines are separated by just 1.3 points and positions 1–14 differ by less than four points. Every Top 25 carrier recorded incident rates of 0.09 per flight or lower. The 2026 methodology adds emphasis on turbulence prevention by assessing participation in IATA turbulence-avoidance programs or comparable cockpit technologies, addressing the leading cause of in-flight injuries. Passengers can reasonably expect high safety standards across the ranked carriers.

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