Qantas’ wait for the arrival of new planes to replace its ageing fleet has seen the airline lose the top spot as the world’s safest airline for a second year.
Air New Zealand has received back-to-back honours and was named Airline Ratings‘ safest full-service airline in an “extremely close” race against Qantas.
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Airline Ratings chief executive Sharon Petersen said only 1.50 points separated first and second.
“Whilst both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continues to have a younger fleet than Qantas, which separates the two,” she said.
Sydney University professor and aviation expert Rico Merkert told AAP the ageing fleet was a “fair point” made by Airline Ratings.
“[Qantas] do have an older fleet – quite old actually – and they did have some issues recently with some of their older aircraft,” he said.
“That said, if maintained well, older aircraft can also be incredibly safe.”
Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and Emirates tied in third place, while Virgin Australia and Etihad Airways rounded out the top five.
“The three-way tie for third place was because we simply could not separate these airlines. From fleet age to pilot skill, safety practices, fleet size, and number of incidents, their scores were identical.”
Meanwhile, Jetstar Group was ranked the second-safest low-cost airline for 2025.