With the recent spate of incidents, it would be easy to think aviation is becoming less safe. But in reality, flying is one of the safest ways to travel and, thanks to a new report, we can now discover which are the safest airlines in the US to fly with.
A recent study by MIT found that the fatality rate associated with flying fell to one per every 13.7 million passenger flights in 2024. 10 years ago, that rate was one per 4.4 million flights. More than 100,000 commercial flights take off and land safely every day, so the likelihood of being involved in an incident is incredibly low.
AirlineRatings, an airline review site, evaluates ‘safety’ against more than just an incident record. The age of the fleet, pilots’ skills, and even the company’s profitability are also considered. Aviation experts and check pilots are consulted to paint an overall picture of operational standards.
Globally, the safest full-service airline was Air New Zealand, while Asian budget carrier HK Express took the prize for safest low-cost airline. Five US airlines made the top 25 safest full-service airlines, and five were named in the top 25 safest low-cost airlines. Let’s find out which they were.
The safest full-service airlines in the US
| Rank in USA | Airline name | Global rank |
| 1 | Alaska Airlines | 9 |
| 2 | Hawaiian Airlines | 12 |
| 3 | American Airlines | 13 |
| 4 | Delta Air Lines | 21 |
| 5 | United Airlines | 23 |
According to Airline Ratings’ ranking, Alaska Airlines is the safest full-service airline in the US. It scored highly enough to reach 9th place in the global rankings, fending off competition from the likes of British Airways, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa.
In second place in the 2025 rankings is Hawaiian, followed by American Airlines in third. We take a look at each of the carriers in more detail, and their safety records.
Alaska Airlines
| Safest US airline rank | 1 |
| Safest global airline rank | 9 |
| Fleet size | 328 |
| Destinations | 128 |
| Flying since | 1932 |
It’s a little perplexing, perhaps, to consider Alaska Airlines the safest carrier in the States, given the high-profile incident that occurred at the start of 2024. In case you needed to be reminded, a door plug blew out of the side of a Boeing 737 MAX as it climbed out of Portland Airport (PDX).
AirlineRatings highlights that some incidents can actually boost an airline’s safety profile. It cited the crash of JAL 516 at Haneda Airport (HND) as an example of where crew training and procedural accuracy prevented an incident from becoming a disaster.
In the case of Alaska Airlines 1282, the crewmembers, both flight crew and cabin crew, remained calm, followed procedure, and got the plane and its passengers safely back to the ground. Boeing has since taken responsibility for the fault.
As an airline that has been flying for over 70 years under its current name (and traces its roots back to 1932), Alaska Airlines flew through a time when aviation was not as safe as it is today. But since 1971, the airline operated without a single fatality, until in 2000 a failure of part of the horizontal stabilizer on an MD-80 caused a crash that claimed 88 lives. It has not had a fatality since.
Hawaiian Airlines
| Safest US airline rank | 2 |
| Safest global airline rank | 12 |
| Fleet size | 70 |
| Destinations | 31 |
| Flying since | 1929 |
Hawaiian Airlines has jumped up the list from 21st safest airline in the world to 12th in 2025. While it missed out on a place in the top 10 safest airlines, it does mean it’s the second safest carrier to travel with in and around the United States.
According to AirAdvisor, Hawaiian Airlines is also one of the most reliable airlines in the US. It has a low cancelation rate for flights and is the least likely US airline to deny boarding. It also does well on baggage handling, with a low mishandle rate of 3.2 bags per 1,000.
Considering the airline has been flying for almost a hundred years, it’s remarkable that it has never had a fatal accident or the hull loss of an aircraft. The carrier was acquired by Alaska Airlines in September 2024, bringing the two safest airlines in the US together in the same group.
American Airlines
| Safest US airline rank | 3 |
| Safest global airline rank | 13 |
| Fleet size | 981 |
| Destinations | 353 |
| Flying since | 1926 |
Like Hawaiian, American Airlines has jumped up the rankings in the past year, going from 22nd in 2024 to 13th globally this year. Helping this will be its improved on time performance in 2024 and its record revenues and profitable year.
Hampering American’s ability to take Alaska Airlines off the top spot is its relatively high rate of denied boardings. According to Statista, in 2023, it denied boarding to 0.46 passengers per 10,000 enplanements, making it the worst full service carrier for this practice. The Air Travel Consumer Report also found it was the most likely to mishandle baggage. American Airlines handled more than 200 million pieces of luggage in the past three years. Of those, more than 1.7 million were mishandled.
Nevertheless, the airline maintains an excellent safety record, and until the end of 2024, had not had a fatal accident since 2001. Then, two American planes were hijacked on September 11 and crashed, with American Airlines Flight 11 considered the deadliest crash in aviation history. Two months later, an Airbus A300 operating American 587 crashed in New York, killing all on board. That accident became the second deadliest incident on US soil after Flight 11.
Since then, American hadn’t had a single fatality until January 2025. American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on final approach to Reagan Airport. The collision caused both aircraft to crash into the Potomac River. All 64 passengers and crew on the CRJ and three crew members on the helicopter were killed. How that affects its ranking next year will depend on the outcome of investigations.
Delta Air Lines
| Safest US airline rank | 4 |
| Safest global airline rank | 21 |
| Fleet size | 978 |
| Destinations | 311 |
| Flying since | 1925 |
Delta Air Lines has a vast network and a huge number of aircraft, but it retains a solid safety record to claim 4th place in the AirlineRatings ranking. Delta is frequently voted one of the world’s best airlines, is a firm favorite with passengers, and has an impeccable on-time performance.
The airline hasn’t had a fatal accident since 2006, when Delta Connection aircraft overran the runway and crashed, killing 49 people. However, there were some concerning incidents in 2024 that may have contributed to its lower ranking for this year.
At the start of the year, a rogue passenger climbed into an engine and was killed, then on January 20, a Delta 757 lost its nose wheel just before taking off. In August, two maintenance engineers were killed when a tire exploded, and in September, an A350-900 collided with a CRJ900 (also a Delta plane) while taxiing for departure.
United Airlines
| Safest US airline rank | 5 |
| Safest global airline rank | 23 |
| Fleet size | 1,008 |
| Destinations | 365 |
| Flying since | 1926 |
United Airlines scrapes onto the global list in 23rd place, putting it in 5th behind Delta in the safest US airlines list. Although it hasn’t had a fatal accident since September 11, 2001, some non-fatal incidents last year likely led to its lower ranking.
In 2024, four passengers and two cabin crew were injured in January when a United Boeing 787 made a sudden dive en route from Lagos, Nigeria, to Washington Dulles (IAD). There were also several safety incidents, such as a tire falling off, a panel detaching mid-air, and bubble wrap in an engine. In light of this, CEO Scott Kirby announced a comprehensive review.
Nevertheless, United has improved its mishandled baggage rate from over nine bags per 1,000 enplanements to just 7.4 mishandles in 2024. According to Cirium, it was the second most on-time airline in the US in 2024, just behind Delta but ahead of American and Alaska.
The safest low-cost carriers in the US
Frontier Airlines scored highly in the Airline Ratings ranking and came out as the safest low-cost airline in the US. While it was beaten in the global ranking by Ryanair and easyJet, it saw off competition from AirAsia and Wizz Air to claim 5th position in the world.
Across its 75-year history, Frontier Airlines has never had a fatal accident. It has its fair share of incidents such as bird strikes and engine malfunctions, but to date none have led to the loss of an aircraft or passenger. It operates a young and modern fleet with an average age of just over four years, which helps to put it ahead in the safety rankings.
| Rank in USA | Airline name | Global rank |
| 1 | Frontier Airlines | 5 |
| 2 | Southwest Airlines | 9 |
| 3 | Sun Country Airlines | 15 |
| 4 | JetBlue | 17 |
| 5 | Allegiant Air | 21 |
Coming in second is Southwest Airlines, which has made a remarkable recovery since its operational meltdown over the holidays a couple of years ago. Over its history, Southwest has never had a fatal aircraft crash, although a passenger sadly died in 2018 after an uncontained engine failure.
Sun Country takes third safest low-cost airline in the US in the ranking, and 15th in the world. Despite being an ultra-low-cost airline, it offers free soft drinks, USB charging and streaming services on most aircraft, helping to improve the passenger experience.
Notably absent from the safest US low-cost airlines list is Spirit Airlines. In previous years, the carrier has appeared in the top 25, but this year, its financial problems meant it lost points. Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024
