Air Arabia, flydubai and Wizz Air named in world's top 20 safest low-cost airlines

We'd all like to travel first class with lie-down flat beds and a butler service while 30,000 feet in the air, but for most of us, that simply isn't possible. That's where low-cost airlines come in, making flying more affordable. But which are the best when it comes to safety? AirlineRatings.com has revealed the top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2022, extending its initial list of 10, in light of "industry and public requests". Monitoring 385 airlines, it compiled the list using several factors, including incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the governing body of aviation, EU-banned lists and fleet age. The list is compiled alphabetically rather than in ranking order, such as with the top 20 list of safest airlines , which this year was topped by Air New Zealand and included both Etihad Airways and Emirates . Air Arabia is included in this year's updated list, after narrowly missing out on a spot in the initial top 10 list, which was published in January. The Sharjah airline received a seven-star safety rating in the rankings. The first low-cost carrier in the region has also recently extended to a hub in Abu Dhabi . Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com , previously said Air Arabia narrowly missed out on the top 10. "Our judging is done over nine objective criteria and then a subjective pilot panel that looks at a range of technical issues with industry feedback. "The differences in ranking between the top 20 or so airlines is very fine and this year Air Arabia just slipped out of the top 10. The airline is certainly up there with the best." Wizz Air, the Hungarian airline that recently launched Wizz Air Abu Dhabi , is also included in the list and has a seven-star safety rating. Dubai's budget airline flydubai also made the cut in the extended list. It received a four-star safety rating with top marks in every category except "fatality free" records owing to an incident in 2016 attributed to pilot error. Air Arabia (UAE) Air Asia Group (Malaysia) Allegiant (America) airBaltic (Latvia) easyJet (UK) flydubai (UAE) Frontier Airlines (US) Jetstar Group (Australia) JetBlue (US) IndiGo (India) Ryanair (Ireland) Scoot Airlines (Singapore) Southwest Airlines (US) SpiceJet (India) Spirit Airlines (US) Vueling (Spain) VietJet Air (Vietnam) Volaris (Mexico) WestJet (Canada) Wizz Air (Hungary) Wizz Air Abu Dhabi recently marked its first year of operations, and announced that its new Airbus A321neo aircraft will fly to three new destinations from February: Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), Yerevan (Armenia) and Krasnodar (Russia). The airline said late last year that it was working on regulatory approvals to start flights to the Indian subcontinent. The original list of the top 10 airlines included Allegiant, easyJet, Frontier Airlines, Jetstar, JetBlue, Ryanair, VietJet Air, Volaris, WestJet, and Wizz Air. _______________________

Air Arabia, flydubai and Wizz Air named in world's top 20 safest low-cost airlines

AirlineRatings.com has extended its recently announced list for 2022, with three UAE airlines making the cut

The top 20 safest low-cost airlines for 2022 are:

World's safest airlines 2022: Etihad Airways and Emirates among best