Aegean Airlines, Ryanair and Austrian Airlines have taken the top three places in a new 10-year European airline safety index, which compares 20 of the continent’s largest low-cost and mainline carriers using data covering 2016 to 2025.
The 2026 European Airline Safety Index, published by AirAdvisor, examined the 10 largest eligible low-cost airlines and 10 largest eligible mainline airlines operating in Europe. The airlines were selected according to their 2025 flight volumes reported by EUROCONTROL.
Rather than judging airlines solely on their accident history, the index combined six areas of performance. Safety record carried the greatest weight at 40 percent and was based on accidents listed in the IATA Safety Report between 2016 and 2025. Certification and audit accounted for another 20 percent, including audit history and International Civil Aviation Organization data on the effectiveness of national aviation oversight.
The remaining 40 percent covered operational safety systems, fleet age and technical profile, pilot training and financial stability. These scores were based on publicly available regulatory and company information, according to AirAdvisor.
AirAdvisor stressed that the index is intended for comparison and should not be interpreted as determining whether a particular airline is safe or unsafe.
Aegean Airlines finished first with 89 points out of 100. The Greek carrier recorded no qualifying accidents during the 10-year period and received the full 40 points available for its safety record. It also scored 13 out of 15 for operational safety, 9 out of 10 for its fleet and technical profile, and 5 out of 5 for financial stability.
Ryanair ranked second with 86 points, followed by Austrian Airlines with 85.5. Norwegian placed fourth with 85 points, while SunExpress completed the top five with 84.5.
The results also show why a clean accident record does not automatically determine an airline’s overall position. British Airways, SAS and Eurowings each received the full 40 points for their safety record but finished outside the top five because the index combines six different measures.
Low-cost airlines also performed strongly across the ranking. Three of the five highest-ranked carriers, Ryanair, Norwegian and SunExpress, operate under the low-cost model.
Across the 20 airlines assessed, low-cost carriers recorded an average score of 79.2 out of 100, compared with 82.8 for mainline airlines. That represents a difference of 3.6 points.
Anton Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor, told Euronews Travel that the results challenge the assumption that cheaper airline tickets necessarily mean a greater safety risk. He said the accident records of low-cost and mainline airlines were similar and that the two groups received the same average score for safety management systems.
The index also found an advantage for low-cost airlines when it came to fleet age and technical profile. They averaged 7.8 out of 10 in this category, compared with 7.1 for mainline carriers. Wizz Air and Pegasus received full marks of 10 out of 10 for their fleet age and technical profile.
Fleet age, however, was not treated as a standalone measure of safety. Radchenko noted in the report that newer aircraft can offer technological and efficiency benefits, but an older aircraft that is properly maintained can continue to operate safely for many years.
The final ranking placed Air France, British Airways and Iberia jointly sixth, each with 83.5 points. Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa followed jointly in ninth place with 83 points each.
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KLM ranked 11th with 82.5 points, while easyJet took 12th with 82. Eurowings and SAS shared 13th place with 81.5 points.
Wizz Air ranked 15th with 79.5 points, followed by Transavia on 79. Vueling scored 77, while Jet2 placed 18th with 73 points. SWISS ranked 19th with 72.5 points, and Pegasus Airlines finished 20th with 64.5.
The ranking illustrates the difference between an airline’s accident history and a broader comparative assessment of safety-related factors. While the safety record carried the largest individual weighting, AirAdvisor’s methodology also considered oversight, operational systems, aircraft characteristics, pilot training and financial strength.
For travellers, the findings offer another way to compare major European airlines, but the index itself cautions against treating a numerical ranking as an absolute measure of safety. Airline safety depends on a wider regulatory and operational system, and the score is designed to compare how the selected carriers performed against the specific criteria used in the study.
