• Air Koryo of North Korea. EPA
    Air Koryo of North Korea. EPA
  • A Tara Air aircraft on the runway at Tenzing Hillary Airport, Lukla, Nepal. Loop Images / UIG via Getty Images
    A Tara Air aircraft on the runway at Tenzing Hillary Airport, Lukla, Nepal. Loop Images / UIG via Getty Images
  • A Buddha Air Beechcraft 1900D aircraft taxis on the tarmac after landing at the international airport in Paro, Bhutan. Ed Jones / AFP
    A Buddha Air Beechcraft 1900D aircraft taxis on the tarmac after landing at the international airport in Paro, Bhutan. Ed Jones / AFP
  • A Nepal Airlines Airbus 320 parked inside Tribhuwan International airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. Niranjan Shrestha / AP Photo
    A Nepal Airlines Airbus 320 parked inside Tribhuwan International airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. Niranjan Shrestha / AP Photo
  • Trigana Air Service's ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane takes off at Supadio airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. AP Photo
    Trigana Air Service's ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane takes off at Supadio airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. AP Photo
  • Tourists disembark a Yeti Airlines aircraft after its arrival in Nepal. Joern Bender /picture-alliance / dpa / AP Images
    Tourists disembark a Yeti Airlines aircraft after its arrival in Nepal. Joern Bender /picture-alliance / dpa / AP Images

World's least safe airlines 2018 revealed


Ian Oxborrow
  • English
  • Arabic

Safety is not a huge concern when flying with world-renowned airlines such as Etihad Airways, Emirates, British Airways or Cathay Pacific.

After all, their planes take off in their dozens around the world each day without a blip and their financial clout means fleets have been updated with the latest in aviation technology.

Those three carriers, along with 17 others, were recently named the world's safest airlines by AirlineRatings.com in its annual rankings.

But where there is a group at the top of the table, there also has to be a group at the bottom, and the safety and product rating website revealed its lowest rated airlines for safety in 2018 from the 409 it monitors.

Those rated one star were: Air Koryo, Blue Wing Airlines, Buddha Air, Nepal Airlines, Tara Air, Trigana Air Service and Yeti Airlines.

In the case of Buddha Air, the airline has been unable to undergo a formal IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and become registered "as there are certain IOSA requirements which Buddha Air cannot comply with, through no fault of its own" it said on its website.

However, it states that it still wishes to be measured against world airline safety standards, and also highlights the increasing problem of bird strikes in Nepal.

Meanwhile, AirlineRatings.com editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas explained the thinking behind how the rankings are compiled: "All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. And it is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one. So just lumping all incidents together is very misleading."

The website describes itself as "the industry standard for safety and product rating".

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World's safest airlines 2018 revealed

  • Cathay Pacific. Vivek Prakash / Bloomberg
    Cathay Pacific. Vivek Prakash / Bloomberg
  • Virgin Australia. Dan Peled / EPA
    Virgin Australia. Dan Peled / EPA
  • Virgin Atlantic. Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
    Virgin Atlantic. Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
  • Swiss International Air Lines. Steffen Schmidt / EPA
    Swiss International Air Lines. Steffen Schmidt / EPA
  • Singapore Airlines. Regis Duvignau / Reuters
    Singapore Airlines. Regis Duvignau / Reuters
  • Scandinavian Airlines. Johan Nilsson / EPA
    Scandinavian Airlines. Johan Nilsson / EPA
  • Royal Jordanian. Alexander Klein / AFP
    Royal Jordanian. Alexander Klein / AFP
  • Qantas. Peter Parks / AFP
    Qantas. Peter Parks / AFP
  • Lufthansa. Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
    Lufthansa. Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
  • KLM. Robin Van Lonkhuijsen / EPA - EFE
    KLM. Robin Van Lonkhuijsen / EPA - EFE
  • Japan Airlines. Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP
    Japan Airlines. Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP
  • Hawaiian Airlines. Ted S Warren / AP Photo
    Hawaiian Airlines. Ted S Warren / AP Photo
  • A Finnair jetliner lands at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport in Helsinki. Jussi Nukari / AFP
    A Finnair jetliner lands at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport in Helsinki. Jussi Nukari / AFP
  • EVA Air. David Chang / EPA
    EVA Air. David Chang / EPA
  • Etihad Airways. Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
    Etihad Airways. Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
  • Emirates. Courtesy Emirates
    Emirates. Courtesy Emirates
  • British Airways. Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
    British Airways. Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
  • All Nippon Airways. Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP
    All Nippon Airways. Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP
  • Alaska Airlines. Elaine Thompson / AP Photo
    Alaska Airlines. Elaine Thompson / AP Photo
  • Air New Zealand. Marty Melville / AFP
    Air New Zealand. Marty Melville / AFP