ABU DHABI, Jan 15, 2026, 18:21 GST
- Etihad ranked safest full-service airline for 2026 in AirlineRatings annual list
- Cathay Pacific and Qantas placed second and third; HK Express led low-cost list
- AirlineRatings CEO said the gap between top airlines is now “razor-thin”
Etihad Airways has been named the world’s safest full-service airline for 2026, topping an annual ranking that put Cathay Pacific in second place and Qantas third. AirlineRatings.com said it was the first time a Gulf carrier had led its list.
The ranking lands as airlines face sharper scrutiny over in-flight safety, including injuries linked to turbulence, and as carriers compete hard for premium travellers. Safety messaging is also showing up more often in marketing, especially on long-haul routes where passengers have options.
Time Out, citing AirlineRatings, said 320 operators were evaluated using indicators such as total flights, fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training and international safety audits, with added emphasis this year on preventing turbulence-related harm. In plain terms: the scoring now leans more on how airlines avoid rough air and manage it when it hits.
AirlineRatings chief executive Sharon Petersen said “less than four points” covered positions one through 14, with just 1.3 points separating the top six full-service carriers. She warned that tight scores can make traditional league tables “misleading,” and pushed the idea of performance tiers instead.
On the low-cost side, Scoot ranked third behind HK Express and Jetstar, while Singapore Airlines placed seventh in the full-service category, Time Out Singapore reported. It said Singapore Airlines missed the 2025 list after the SQ321 incident in May 2024, which involved severe turbulence, one death and multiple injuries.
The top 10 full-service list also included Qatar Airways and Emirates in fourth and fifth, followed by Air New Zealand, then Singapore Airlines. In the low-cost top 10, flydubai ranked fourth, ahead of easyJet and Southwest.
Petersen attributed Etihad’s top spot to a young fleet, cockpit safety work “particularly around turbulence,” a crash-free history and the lowest incident rate per flight among airlines on the list, according to Time Out. She used similar language to explain HK Express’s lead in the budget category, pointing to low incident rates and an onboard safety audit.
AeroTime, reporting on the same rankings, said AirlineRatings’ criteria adjust incident rates for flight volumes and consider factors such as fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training and audits. It also quoted Petersen saying every airline in the 2026 list had logged incidents in the past two years, though the incident rate per flight remained very low.
There are limits to what any ranking can promise. Scores rely on what gets reported and how incidents are classified, and a good year can turn quickly on a single major event. AirlineRatings itself has cautioned against reading small numerical differences as big safety gaps.
Industry-wide, commercial flying remains rarefied in risk terms. IATA’s 2024 safety report put the all-accident rate at 1.13 accidents per million flights, compared with 1.09 in 2023, and described aviation as one of the safest modes of public transport.
AirlineRatings publishes the full top-25 lists for both full-service and low-cost carriers on its site, and says it monitors 320 airlines for the rankings.
