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UAE has world's safest airlines

UAE carriers continued to demonstrate their focus on excellence and flight safety, with both Emirates airline and Etihad Airways listed among the Top 10 safest airlines in the world.
The Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (Jacdec) recently released its Airline Safety Ranking study for 2017, which found that airlines based in Asia and the Middle East continued to dominate the list of carriers with the best safety track record in 2016.
Dubai's Emirates ranks on the seventh slot while the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is ranked eighth on the list of the world's safest airlines.
Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong, tops the list as the carrier with the best safety record, followed by Air New Zealand in second position. Hainan Airlines comes in third, followed by Qatar Airways, KLM from the Netherlands, Eva Air from Taiwan, followed by Emirates and Etihad. Qantas from Australia and Japan Airlines round up the Top 10. Another similar annual survey of the world's biggest airlines by safety and product rating website, AirlineRatings.com, in January 2016 put Qantas in the top spot for the third year in a row, when it evaluated the safest airlines in the world. The Australian carrier was followed by Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines and American Airlines. Gulf carriers Emirates and Etihad Airways also performed well in terms of safety coming in seventh and eighth position, respectively.
In selecting Qantas as the world's safest airline, AirlineRatings.com editors noted that over its 95-year history, the world's oldest continuously operating airline has amassed an extraordinary record of firsts in operations and safety and is now accepted as the industry's most experienced carrier.
The Australian airline has been a leader in: the development of the Future Air Navigation System; the Flight Data Recorder to monitor plane and later crew performance; automatic landings using Global Navigation Satellite System as well as precision approaches around mountains in cloud using RNP.Qantas was the lead airline with real-time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite communications, which has enabled the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue.
Turkish Airlines' Future of Air Travel survey, carried out by Forsa Study, examined a cross-section of travellers flying different airlines from the UAE. The survey, published last month, found that 94 per cent of UAE passengers surveyed believe that an airline's reputation is either important or very important for them while booking their tickets, and that they usually make their assumption by checking the airline's safety record.
Emre Ismailoglu, general manager for Dubai and the Northern Emirates region at Turkish Airlines, has then said: "UAE travellers have revealed their varied expectations from airlines for the future which is a good indicator of where the bar needs to be raised within the aviation sector. Safety continues to be the biggest concern for passengers closely followed by their comfort in the air."
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com