Scoot last made the low-cost carrier safety ranking list in 2023, when the top 25 airlines were listed but not ranked. --ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANNO): Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA), placed third in a ranking of the World’s Safest Low-Cost Airlines for 2026 by AirlineRatings.com, an airline safety and product rating website.
Hong Kong budget carrier HK Express topped the list, followed by Jetstar Australia in second place. Scoot last made the list in 2023, when the top 25 safest low-cost carriers were listed but not ranked.
Scoot is also the highest-ranked Asean airline in the list. The other Asean brand was Air Asia, which was placed 10th in the list.
AirlineRatings.com has been releasing its World’s Safest Airlines ranking annually since 2014, and assessed 320 airlines for the 2026 list. Airlines operating fewer than 25 aircraft were excluded from consideration.
All airlines were evaluated with a range of criteria, including their rate of flight incidents, fleet age, fleet size, fatalities and compliance with international audits and standards by globally recognised aviation organisations such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
United Arab Emirates flag carrier Etihad Airways was named World’s Safest Full-Service Airline for 2026, while SIA came in 7th. SIA has made the list almost every year since 2014 – taking 13th place in 2024, 5th in 2023 and 4th in 2022.
The only year SIA failed to make the list was 2025, when its safety assessment scores were impacted by the SQ321 incident that happened on May 21, 2024, involving severe turbulence that resulted in one fatality and many others injured.
Sharon Petersen, the Perth-based chief executive of AirlineRatings.com, tells The Straits Times serious incidents are assessed using multiple sources of data and information, so the team is able to understand how risky the situations are for passengers. Airlines are not penalised for issues arising from aircraft manufacturers, air traffic control, acts of God – like hurricanes or earthquakes – or conflict zones.
Aside from its assessment criteria, the AirlineRatings.com team also meets airlines regularly to discuss safety standards and best practices, conducts independent in-flight safety audits, and consults aviation experts and check pilots, who are qualified to train, evaluate and certify other pilots.
Sharon adds: “Where an airline is not transparent with us, we rely on publicly available data and pure statistics to drive our decisions.
"Some airlines go a step further to engage us, so while we’re using measurable metrics, there’s also the element of transparency from the airlines opening their doors and talking safety with us, which is so important, because we can’t rate what we don’t know.”
She says the top 25 airlines are often separated by marginal differences.
“What stands out this year is not who came first, but how little separates the leaders. We may be reaching a point where rankings are potentially misleading, and grouping airlines into performance tiers may provide a more accurate reflection of reality,” she explains.
“The fact that these airlines are separated by a fraction of a point, for example, is good for travellers and the industry.”
The top 10 safest low-cost airlines in 2026 are: 1. HK Express; 2. Jetstar Australia; 3. Scoot; 4. Flydubai; 5. EasyJet Group; 6. Southwest Airlines; 7. AirBaltic; 8. Vietjet Air; 9. Wizz Air Group; 10. AirAsia Group
The top 10 safest full-service airlines in 2026 are: 1. Etihad Airways; 2. Cathay Pacific; 3. Qantas; 4. Qatar Airways; 5. Emirates; 6. Air New Zealand; 7. Singapore Airlines; 8. Eva Air; 8. Virgin Australia; 10. Korean Air
Statistically, air travel remains the safest mode of travel. The IATA 2024 Annual Safety Report released in February 2025 found that the accident rate was 1.13 per million flights, and the fatality risk remained low at 0.06.
It reported a total of 40.6 million flights in 2024 and seven fatal accidents, including the Jeju Air crash, which killed 175 passengers and four of six crew; and the Japan Airlines collision with a coast guard aircraft, killing five.
Within the report release, IATA’s director general Willie Walsh said that even with the high-profile aviation accidents in 2024, travellers should remember that accidents are extremely rare, and that “the long-term story of aviation safety is one of continuous improvement”. - The Straits Times/ANN
