Airlines and Aviation
Cathay Pacific Airways rated world’s safest airline in the JACDEC 2015 Airline Safety Ranking. Two other airlines in Greater China also make the top 12 plus one airline each in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
2014 was not a good year for air travel, especially in the Asia-Pacific.
The number of airline fatalities rose nearly 4 times in 2014 over the number of deaths the year before, and about half of the accidents involved airlines based in the Asia-Pacific.
To wit …
- A Nepal Airlines DHC-6 goes missing in bad weather on 16 February – 18 fatalilties.
- A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 goes missing on 8 March – 239 fatalities.
- A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 was shot down near Donetsk, Ukraine, on 17 July – 298 fatalities.
- A Transasia Airways ATW-72 crash-landed at Penghu Islands Magong Airport in Taiwan on 23 July – 48 fatalities and 10 injuries.
- An AirAsia Airbus A320-216 crashes on 28 December – 162 fatalities.
Considering these tragedies, it is reassuring to note that the bulk of airlines ranking highly in the 2015 survey for airline safety compiled by the German-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC) were also from the Asia-Pacific.
Three of the airlines were from Greater China and one airline each was from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
Two airlines from Europe, 2 airlines from the Middle East, and 2 airlines from North America rounded out the top 12 airlines on the list.
No airlines from Africa or South America made the top 12.
1. Cathay Pacific Airways – Hong Kong; up from 2nd place last year;
2. Emirates Airline – United Arab Emirates; up from 4th place last year;
3. Eva Air – Taiwan; up from 5th place last year;
4. Air Canada – Canada; up from 9th place last year;
5. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines – the Netherlands; up from 17th place last year;
6. Air New Zealand – New Zealand; down from first place last year;
7. QANTAS – Australia; up from 10th place last year;
8. Hainan Airlines – China; up from 14th place last year;
9. JetBlue Airways – the United States; up from 16th place last year;
10. Etihad Airways – United Arab Emirates; down from 8th place last year;
11. All Nippon Airways – Japan; up from 12th place last year;
12. Lufthansa German Airlines – Germany; up from 18th place last year.
The following airlines dropped off the top 12 list: British Airways (6th place last year); TAP Portugal (7th place last year); Qatar Airways (11th place last year).