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It is safe to say that air travel slumped during 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19.

The pandemic panic and flight cancellation chaos were all too familiar for many travellers over the past few weeks and months.

When the flights finally resumed, some didn’t go so well, with wild passengers holding a maskless in-flight party (at least it wasn’t a fight), and birds turning propellers into something resembling chewed up biltong.

But every cloud has a silver lining, which is the perspective AirlineRatings has taken with its annual list of the safest airlines around the globe.

Because COVID-19 was, and still is, a big part of the air safety conversation, there were some significant changes to the list, reported CNN.

And so the safest airline for the new year is:

Air New Zealand has come out on top on the annual safety table, which monitors 385 carriers from across the globe, measuring factors such as the airlines’ crash and serious incident records, the age of their aircraft, as well as COVID-19 protocols and operational innovation.

The flag carrier airline for New Zealand was awarded first place “due to its excellent incident record, number of cockpit innovations, pilot training and very low fleet age,” according to Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of the Australian-based website.

“Air New Zealand has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail while caring for its flight crews who have worked under significant stress,” Thomas tells CNN Travel.

This year, Qantas, which held the title of the world’s safest airline from 2014 to 2017, as well as 2019 to 2021, is not in its usual spot in the top five.

What’s more, Emirates was at number five on the 2021 list but is sitting at 20th place this year, while Southwest Airlines, which ranked 13th in 2021, is not included in the top 20 this year at all.

Here are AirlineRatings’ 20 safest airlines for 2022:

1. Air New Zealand
2. Etihad Airways
3. Qatar Airways
4. Singapore Airlines
5. TAP Air Portugal
6. SAS
7. Qantas
8. Alaska Airlines
9. EVA Air
10. Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic
11. Cathay Pacific Airways
12. Hawaiian Airlines
13. American Airlines
14. Lufthansa
15. Finnair
16. KLM
17. British Airways
18. Delta Air Lines
19. United Airlines
20. Emirates

The website also listed the top 10 safest budget airlines, which are: Allegiant Air, easyJet, Frontier Airlines, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet Air, Volaris, Westjet, and Wizz Air.

Cheers to safe travelling for 2022.

[source:cnn]