Vueling among world's top 10 safest budget airlines

Each year, Airline Ratings gives the top 20 most-secure carriers worldwide, and this year has included a separate section for the best 10 low-cost flight firms in terms of safety.

Australian national airline Qantas takes the top spot yet again – having been leader in practically every major developments and advances in operational safety in the last 60 years – and is followed by Air New Zealand, EVA Air (Taiwan), Etihad, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Virgin Australia, Hawaiian Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

European carriers which make the top 20 are TAP Portugal, SAS, Swiss, Finnair, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and KLM, in that order, although Royal Jordanian slots between SAS and Swiss.

The vast majority of the safest airlines are very large inter-continental carriers, which have a sizeable budget enabling them to be 'on the cutting edge of safety, innovation and launching of new aircraft', according to chief editor of Airline Ratings, Geoffrey Thomas.

New aircraft mentioned include the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787.

Those which did not make the cut are not necessarily 'unsafe' – major national carriers such as Air France, Alitalia, British Airways, Turkish Airlines and Iberia – just that they are not at the peak of the industry in this respect.

European Union air travel laws are very strict and no carrier which falls short of its extremely demanding safety standards is allowed into the continent's air space.

But appearing on a 'safest' list is extra reassurance for customers, and is something Vueling can now use as an additional selling point.

Owned by the IAG group, which also owns Iberia and British Airways, Vueling joins other European low-cost carriers Flybe and Wizz Air, both of which are regulars in most of Spain's main airports and offer connections several times a week between Spanish hubs and the rest of the continent.

JetBlue, IndiGo, Air Arabia, Frontier, HK Express, Volaris, and WestJet make up the remainder of the list.

According to Airline Ratings, the list of the 'world's safest for 2020' has come at a key moment in modern air travel history – just as inquiries into the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash, which killed 157 people, are under way.

“All airlines have incidents every day,” Airline Ratings assures.

“But many of these are issues relating to aircraft or engine manufacturing, not to the operations of the actual companies.”