Ryanair

Is Ryanair safe?

Yes. Low fares have not meant a weak safety record: Ryanair says no passenger or pilot has died in an accident with one of its aircraft in 41 years, and the Aviation Safety Network lists none. With more than 3,000 flights a day in summer, that is one of the strongest records in the industry. We score it 89, the same as Qantas and easyJet.

What keeps it from the very top: it stays outside the IATA audit system, and a frightening engine failure in July 2026 is still under investigation.

What happened on FR1879?

Early on 10 July 2026, flight FR1879 left Thessaloniki for Memmingen in Germany. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 registered 9H-QEU and operated by Malta Air, a Ryanair Group airline. Climbing through about 16,000 feet, the right engine (a CFM56-7B) lost a fan blade. Debris hit the fuselage, a cabin window failed and the cabin lost pressure.

The passenger in window seat 11F was pulled partly into the opening, and people around him pulled him back into the cabin. The crew descended, returned to Thessaloniki and landed normally. The NTSB preliminary report lists one serious injury among the 155 people on board.

Greece handed the investigation to the US NTSB on 16 July. The preliminary report notes bird remains, including feathers, on parts of the failed engine. The event is similar to Southwest 1380 in 2018, in which a passenger died after a CFM56 fan blade failure broke a window. We count it as a serious incident, and the crew's handling as a strength, not a weakness.

The rest of the record

Ryanair's only hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary came on 10 November 2008. Flight 4102 from Frankfurt-Hahn flew into a large flock of starlings while landing at Rome Ciampino. Both engines lost power, the aircraft landed hard, and the left main landing gear collapsed. Eight passengers and two crew went to hospital with minor injuries.

Smaller events show up at the rate you would expect for an airline flying more than 3,000 times a day. Two 737-800s ran past the usable runway on landing in Germany: at Hamburg on 15 May 2018 and on a snow-covered runway at Dortmund on 5 December 2022, both without injuries (AeroInside). The forced landing of FR4978 in Minsk on 23 May 2021 was different: an ICAO fact-finding report found the bomb threat was deliberately false and that Belarusian officials ordered the landing, so it was state interference, not a safety failure by the airline.

One brand, several airlines

A flight with an FR number may be operated by any of the group's airlines:

Airline	Certificate	Fleet
Ryanair DAC	Ireland (IAA)	Boeing 737-800, 737-8200
Buzz	Poland	Boeing 737-800, 737-8200
Malta Air	Malta	Boeing 737-800, 737-8200
Ryanair UK	United Kingdom (CAA)	Boeing 737-800
Lauda Europe	Malta	Airbus A320

All of them use the same group training, procedures and maintenance standards, and all are overseen by EU or UK regulators. The 737-8200 is a high-density version of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, and Ryanair has 210 of them. The Lauda A320s average about 19 years, the oldest aircraft in the group.

Why no IOSA?

IATA's IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit is the industry's common safety check, and IATA reports that IOSA airlines had 0.92 accidents per million flights in 2024 against 1.70 for others. Ryanair is not an IATA member, and its annual 20-F filing describes its safety oversight through EASA and national regulators without mentioning IOSA. EU oversight is strict, so this matters less than it would for an airline from a weaker system. It is still the reason the oversight factor is 86 and not in the 90s.

How to fly Ryanair safely

• Wear your seat belt whenever seated, even at cruise. A sudden decompression or turbulence gives no warning, and on FR1879 the cabin crew were still preparing the meal service when the engine failed.
• Know your exits. Ryanair 737s have at least two over-wing exits on each side; count the rows to the nearest one when you sit down.
• Leave your bag behind in an evacuation. Ryanair's strict bag rules encourage people to carry everything on board, and grabbing bags slows everyone down.

How we scored it

The accident record (96) carries the score: no fatal accident and one hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary in 41 years. Oversight (86) loses points for the missing IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, and incidents (82) for FR1879. Compare Lufthansa and British Airways, the large European network airlines.