7 Jan 2015

Asian airlines make top safety list

8:58 pm on 7 January 2015

Despite it being a terrible year for aviation in Asia, three Asian carriers have made it into a list of the world's 10 safest airlines.

A Cathay Pacific jet taxis to the tarmac of the Hong Kong International Airport on 24 September.

A Cathay Pacific jet taxis to the tarmac of the Hong Kong International Airport on 24 September. Photo: AFP

According to AirlineRatings-dot-com, Qantas tops the list.

The other airlines in the top 10 are not ranked, but they include Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Singapore Airlines as well as Air New Zealand.

The website's editor, Geoffrey Thomas, said Cathay and Singapore were leaders in airline safety but more Asian airlines needed to take part in safety audits.

"The world's focus is on Asian airlines and one of the disappointing things is that only about 13 of the 41 airlines in Asia have done the International Air Transport Association (AITA) Operational Safety Audit."

Mr Thomas said the safety audit brought discipline to an airline and ensured all systems were best-practice.

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