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Doha: Qatar Airways ranked fourth among the Top 25 Safest Full-Service Airlines for 2026, according to safety experts at AirlineRatings, who examined 320 airlines around the globe to calculate their overall safety scores.
It named Etihad Airways as the safest airline, followed by Cathay Pacific in second and Qantas in third place. Emirates rounded out the Top 5.
While acknowledging the changes to the world’s safest full-service airlines list for 2026, CEO of AirlineRatings, Sharon Petersen noted that “this is the first year a Gulf carrier has taken the number one spot. Etihad achieved this through a combination of factors: a young fleet, advancements in cockpit safety, particularly around turbulence, a crash-free history, and the lowest incident rate per flight of any airline on the list. The airline also participated in our independent onboard safety audit and demonstrated excellent adherence to turbulence management in the cabin.”
The methodology and criteria behind the ranking included incident rates adjusted for the total number of flights, fleet age, serious incidents, pilot training and international safety audits among other factors.
“One change for this year is that we are placing a greater emphasis on turbulence prevention, as it remains the leading cause of in-flight injuries. To support this, we consider an airline’s participation in the IATA Turbulence Aware programme or equivalent, as well as the Airline Ratings onboard safety audit. Transparency from airlines is also critical to this process”, she said.
In compiling the list, Petersen stressed the need for travellers to understand how narrow the margins are between the world’s safest airlines, and that small numerical differences should not be interpreted as gaps in safety.
“What stands out this year is how little separates the leaders. Less than four points covered positions one through 14, and at the very top the margins were even tighter, with just 1.3 points separating positions one through six in the full service category. 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.”
The top 25 full-service airlines for 2026:
