Ranking
Safest Airlines in Europe 2026
Every airline we cover whose home country is in Europe, including the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia. Scores combine the airline's accident record over the last 20 years with its regulator, fleet, serious incidents and network. Open any airline for the data and sources behind its score.
Updated · Scores update with each page
The ranking
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft in more than 40 years of flying. Its fleet of 43 widebodies averaged 7.5 years at the end of 2025. The record is built on fewer flights than at big short-haul airlines, and a few in-flight technical failures since 2019 are the main blemishes.
Score 91, grade AeasyJet
easyJet has flown since 1995 without a fatal accident or a written-off aircraft, and now flies about 576,000 flights a year on an all-Airbus fleet. It is not an IATA member, so it relies on UK, Austrian and Swiss oversight rather than IOSA. Its weak spot is a run of take-off performance errors.
Score 89, grade ANorwegian
Norwegian has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft. It flies 95 Boeing 737s, averaging 8.5 years, under Norwegian and Swedish certificates within the EASA system. It is not an IATA member, and its recent serious incidents are mostly turbulence and an airprox that injured cabin crew.
Score 89, grade ARyanair
Ryanair has one of the strongest records of any budget airline. No passenger or pilot has died in a Ryanair accident in 41 years and millions of flights. It is not an IATA member, so it relies on EU oversight rather than IOSA, and a July 2026 engine failure is under investigation.
Score 89, grade AEurowings
Eurowings has never had a fatal accident caused by its aircraft or operation, and it flies under German and Maltese certificates within EASA. The 2015 Germanwings crash was a deliberate act by the co-pilot, which we describe but do not count. The weak spot is an older A319 and A320 fleet.
Score 88, grade AFinnair
Finnair has not had a fatal accident since a DC-3 crashed at Mariehamn in 1963, and it has not written off an aircraft in the jet age. It flies under EASA rules from Helsinki. The weaker spots are 15 Airbus A319s and A320s averaging about 24 years and a network squeezed between closed Russian airspace and GPS jamming.
Score 88, grade AKLM
KLM has not had a fatal mainline accident since the Tenerife runway collision in 1977, and its regional arm KLM Cityhopper's last was in 1994. It is overseen within the EASA system and is IOSA-registered. Its Boeing 737s are ageing, and a 2024 runway excursion in Norway is still under investigation.
Score 88, grade AVueling
Vueling, IAG's Barcelona-based low-cost airline, has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft. It is overseen by Spain's AESA within the EASA system and is IOSA-registered. Its A320s average about 13 years, and Spanish investigators opened two cases on it in 2026.
Score 88, grade AWizz Air
Wizz Air has carried 500 million passengers without a fatal accident or a lost aircraft, and its Airbus fleet averages 4.5 years. It flies under Hungarian, Maltese and UK certificates and is not an IATA member. Recent serious incidents, including a 2025 tail strike at Prague, keep it below the best.
Score 88, grade AAer Lingus
Aer Lingus has not had a fatal accident since a Viscount crashed off Tuskar Rock in 1968, and no aircraft has been written off in decades. It is overseen within the EASA system. A 2025 approach upset that it reported two months late, and ageing A320s and A330s, keep it below the top.
Score 87, grade ALufthansa
Lufthansa has not had a fatal accident since a runway overrun in Warsaw in 1993. It is overseen by Germany and EASA and is IOSA-registered. Its fleet is older than most rivals', and German investigators opened two cases on it in 2026.
Score 87, grade ASAS Scandinavian Airlines
SAS has had no fatal accident since 2001, when another aircraft strayed onto the runway at Milan Linate. Its fleet of 140 aircraft averaged 8.9 years in 2025. The weak spots are three Dash 8 landing-gear failures in 2007 and a 2026 take-off roll on a taxiway at Brussels, stopped at about 100 knots.
Score 87, grade ATransavia
Transavia, Air France-KLM's low-cost brand, has never had a fatal accident. It flies as two airlines, Transavia in the Netherlands and Transavia France, both under EASA rules. Its worst recent events were a 2022 hard landing at Nantes and a 2026 engine failure, and two-thirds of the fleet is still Boeing 737-800s.
Score 87, grade AAir Europa
Air Europa, the Madrid-based airline of the Globalia group, has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft, and it flies Boeing 787s and 737s under EU oversight. In July 2024 severe turbulence sent 30 people from flight UX045 to hospital, and in 2007 a fog approach at Katowice ended short of the runway.
Score 86, grade ABritish Airways
British Airways has not had a fatal accident in its own name since an air traffic control error caused a midair collision in 1976. The UK CAA is a strong regulator. Ageing Boeing 777-200ERs and two serious incidents in 2026 keep the score in the mid-80s.
Score 86, grade AITA Airways
ITA Airways, Alitalia's successor since October 2021, has had no fatal accident and has not lost an aircraft. It flies a young Airbus fleet under Italian and EU oversight and is joining the Lufthansa Group. Two wingtip collisions while taxiing at New York JFK, both blamed on ITA crews, and a short record cost points.
Score 86, grade AJet2
Jet2.com has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft carrying passengers. It flies under a single UK CAA certificate from 14 UK bases. The weaker part is the fleet, mostly Boeing 737-800s bought second-hand, though new A321neos now make up about a fifth of it.
Score 86, grade ACondor
Condor's last fatal accident was a Boeing 737 that hit a hill near Izmir in 1988, and it has not written off an aircraft since. It flies under a German certificate within EASA and retired its last Boeing 757s in November 2025. Points go for serious incidents since 2018, two of them traced to crew or maintenance errors.
Score 85, grade AIberia
Iberia has not had a fatal accident since a Boeing 727 hit a mountain near Bilbao in 1985. It wrote off an A340 at Quito in 2007 and an MD-88 at Vienna in 2008, with no deaths. EU oversight is strong; part of its short-haul fleet is old, and two 2026 events are under investigation.
Score 84, grade BTAP Air Portugal
TAP has had no crash with passenger deaths since Funchal in 1977, and 71% of its Airbus fleet is new-generation. Two motorcyclists were killed on the runway at Conakry in 2022. Two approaches that descended far too low, at Madrid in 2023 and Prague in 2026, are the main concern.
Score 84, grade BLOT Polish Airlines
LOT has had no fatal accident since 1988; its worst crashes were Il-62 engine failures near Warsaw in 1980 and 1987. In 2011 a Boeing 767 landed gear-up in Warsaw with no injuries and was written off. Since 2019 several LOT approaches and landings have gone wrong, which costs points.
Score 83, grade BIcelandair
Icelandair's last fatal accident was a Loftleiðir DC-8 charter in Sri Lanka in 1978, and it flies under EASA rules. Points go for serious incidents since 2016, including a retiring captain's unauthorised low pass in 2026, and for Boeing 757s that leave only in January 2027.
Score 82, grade BSwiss International Air Lines
Swiss has not lost an aircraft since it started flying in 2002, and it is overseen by Switzerland's FOCA within the EASA system. Its record is marked by one death, a flight attendant who died after the engine failure and smoke on flight LX1885 in December 2024, and by repeated engine trouble on its Airbus A220s.
Score 82, grade BSkyUp Airlines
SkyUp has had no fatal accident since it began flying in 2018, and its Ukrainian certificate is IOSA-registered and EASA-authorised. With Ukrainian airspace closed, it flies from Chișinău and on lease to other airlines. Its Boeing 737-800s are older than most European budget fleets.
Score 80, grade BAir France
Air France has had one fatal accident in 20 years, the loss of AF447 over the Atlantic in 2009, and was convicted of corporate manslaughter over it on appeal in May 2026. EASA oversight and a renewing fleet help; the BEA's findings on procedural discipline hold the score back.
Score 77, grade BPegasus Airlines
Pegasus flies a young, 88% new-generation Airbus fleet and is IOSA-registered. But in two years it lost two Boeing 737-800s in runway accidents, at Trabzon in 2018 and at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen in 2020, where three passengers died. That record weighs more than the fleet.
Score 72, grade BTurkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines flies a modern fleet to more countries than any other airline, and it is IOSA-registered. But it has written off five aircraft since 2009, one of them in a fatal crash and one a freighter, so its record is weaker than Europe's big network airlines.
Score 71, grade BPobeda
Aeroflot's low-cost airline has had no fatal accidents and flies a single type, the Boeing 737-800. But it has been on the EU Air Safety List since 2022, it has no IOSA registration, and US sanctions have cut its 737s off from Boeing parts and support.
Score 59, grade CS7 Airlines
S7 has had no fatal accident since its A310 overran the runway at Irkutsk in 2006, killing 125. Since 2022 it has been on the EU Air Safety List and under a US export denial order, and sanctions have grounded most of its A320neo jets because their engines cannot be serviced.
Score 56, grade CAeroflot
Aeroflot's last fatal crash was the 2019 Superjet fire at Sheremetyevo (41 killed). Since 2022 it has been on the EU Air Safety List, under a US export denial order and cut off from Western parts and support. Its fleet is fairly young, but it now relies on in-house repairs and substitute parts.
Score 50, grade D
Which airlines count as European
The rule is the airline's home country, the country that issues its operating certificate and is home to its head office. We include the EU, the UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, and also Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, because their airlines are based in Europe and many travellers fly them on European routes. Airlines from the Caucasus and Central Asia are not on this list. Groups with several certificates, such as Wizz Air or easyJet, count once, under the airline page we score.
How the order is built
Each airline has its own page with five scored factors. The accident record carries 40% of the score: fatal accidents and lost aircraft over the last 20 years, measured against how much the airline flies. Regulatory oversight counts for 20%, serious incidents and fleet for 15% each, and the difficulty of the airline's network for 10%. The list is those scores sorted from the highest down, so it moves whenever we update an airline page. That is why we do not quote scores here: the list above always shows the current ones.
What the top airlines have in common
Most of the airlines near the top work under EASA or the UK Civil Aviation Authority, both of which score very well in international audits. Many of them are low-cost airlines with young fleets of a single aircraft family, which keeps training and maintenance simple. Most have flown for decades without a fatal accident.
Further down are airlines with an older fleet, a run of serious incidents, or a fatal accident inside our 20-year window. The Russian airlines sit lower still, because sanctions cut them off from Western parts and support and the EU banned them on safety grounds in 2022.
What the score does not tell you
A high score is not a promise, and a lower one is not a warning to avoid an airline. Fatal accidents in Europe are so rare that the differences between most airlines on this list are small in absolute terms. For the risk of one trip, look up your flight number: we also score the aircraft type it uses. The factors, weights and thresholds are on how we score airlines, and the world ranking compares these airlines with the rest.
Questions
What is the safest airline in Europe?
The airline at the top of this list has the highest score we give any European carrier right now. The top of the European list is crowded, and the gaps are small, so read it as a group of very safe airlines rather than a strict order. Open each page to see which factor separates them.
Are European budget airlines safe?
Yes. Many European low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and Vueling, score well, because they fly young fleets of one aircraft family under EU or UK regulators, and their accident records are long and clean. The ticket price tells you nothing about the safety standard they must meet.
Why are Russian airlines on this list?
The list includes every airline we cover whose home country is in Europe, and that includes Russia. Aeroflot, Pobeda and S7 have been on the EU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary since April 2022, cut off from Western parts and support. Their pages explain how that affects their scores.
Do all EU airlines follow the same safety rules?
Airlines from EU countries work under common EASA rules, with national authorities doing much of the day-to-day oversight. The UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland apply the same or very similar rules. That shared system is a large part of why so many European airlines score well on oversight.
Is Turkish Airlines included?
Yes. Turkish Airlines and Pegasus are both based in Istanbul, so they are on this list. Their pages explain the accidents and incidents that keep their scores below most of the EU carriers.