With a risk index of 95.05 per cent, Emirates beat out its nearest rivals KLM (93.31 per cent), JetBlue (91.61 per cent), Delta (91.55 per cent) and EasyJet (91.28 per cent) among the 25 airlines surveyed. This is according to Arabian Business newsletter, 3 jan 2022.

Dubai-based Emirates has been named the world’s safest airline for the second successive year, according to the Hamburg-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC). With a risk index of 95.05 percent, Emirates beat out its nearest rivals KLM (93.31 per cent), JetBlue (91.61 percent), Delta (91.55 percent) and EasyJet (91.28 percent) aamong the 25 airlines surveyed. The survey was carried out for aviation magazine Aero International.

For the first time, JACDEC also published regional rankings, which compare the world’s largest airlines within one of four regions. On a regional level, Emirates slipped behind Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, which due to its size did not make it onto the global list.

In Europe, KLM (93.31 per cent) took first place, ahead of Finnair (93.16 per cent), Air Europa (93.12 per cent), Transavia (92.83 per cent), easyJet (91.28 per cent) and Norwegian (90.95 per cent).

The creation of regional categories was “primarily due to the changed size ratios, which shifted in favour of many airlines with strong domestic markets such as China or the US,” explained JACDEC founder Jan-Arwed Richter.

Due to pandemic-related slumps in the aviation industry throughout 2021, as well as only a timid resurgence of passenger numbers, past airline accidents had a greater impact on results this time. Some well-known airlines such as Austrian, Eurowings and Condor didn’t even make it into the European Top 25 due to insufficient passenger-kilometre performance in 2021.

Even before the emergence of the omicron variant and the renewed restrictions that followed in its wake, aviation industry losses due to the pandemic have already totalled some $200 billion, according to Willie Walsh, director general of the airline association IATA.

Walsh predicted a total loss of $52 billion for 2021 and of $12 billion in 2022, before the aviation industry finally returns to making profits in 2023.