Ranking
Safest US Airlines 2026
Every US airline we cover, mainline and regional. Regional airlines such as SkyWest, Endeavor and PSA fly under their own FAA certificates and are scored on their own pages, even when the ticket says United Express, Delta Connection or American Eagle. Open any airline for the data and sources behind its score.
Updated · Scores update with each page
The ranking
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian has no fatal accident and no written-off aircraft in our records since it started flying in 1929, and since October 2025 it flies under Alaska Airlines' FAA certificate. Its weak points are 24-year-old Boeing 717s and a 2022 turbulence event the NTSB blamed on the crew's route.
Score 87, grade AJetBlue
JetBlue has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft. Its Airbus fleet is fly-by-wire throughout, though the A320s are now about 20 years old, and an A320 that pitched down on its own in October 2025 put at least 15 people in hospital.
Score 86, grade AFrontier Airlines
Frontier has never had a passenger or crew member die in an accident and has never lost an aircraft, and its all-Airbus fleet averages about five years. A trespasser killed on the runway at Denver in May 2026, a damaging hard landing in San Juan and a close call at LAX keep it from a higher score.
Score 85, grade AAlaska Airlines
Alaska has not had a fatal mainline accident since flight 261 in January 2000, and its 737 fleet is younger than most US rivals'. The 2024 door plug blowout was Boeing's failure, not the airline's, but a proposed FAA fine in 2026 and some of the toughest airports in the US keep it below the top.
Score 84, grade BDelta Air Lines
Delta's mainline has not had a passenger death in an accident since 1996, and its record across about 1,000 jets is excellent. An old mainline fleet and a run of incidents cost it points. The 2025 Toronto crash of a Delta Connection CRJ900, which everyone survived, is covered here but scored on the Endeavor Air page.
Score 84, grade BSkyWest Airlines
SkyWest flies about 2,260 flights a day for United, Delta, American and Alaska. No passenger has died in a SkyWest crash since 1991, and the only aircraft it lost in the last 20 years was stolen from the ground. Turbulence injuries, a few runway excursions and an older CRJ fleet keep it below the top band.
Score 84, grade BAmerican Airlines
American's mainline has had no fatal crash since 2001. But American Eagle 5342, flown by its own subsidiary PSA Airlines, was destroyed with 64 people in a midair collision over Washington in January 2025, and 2025 brought a run of engine fires and evacuations.
Score 82, grade BAllegiant Air
Allegiant has never had a fatal accident or written off an aircraft. In 2018 a 60 Minutes report and in 2019 a federal audit found too many mechanical breakdowns on its old MD-80s and weak FAA follow-up. The MD-80s are gone, but its Airbus fleet is still among the oldest in the US and it has no IOSA audit yet.
Score 81, grade BUnited Airlines
United has not had a fatal crash on a mainline flight in decades, and the FAA found no significant safety issues in its 2024 review. But it has had more serious incidents than its peers since 2024, including a 767 that clipped a truck on approach to Newark in May 2026, and its fleet is the oldest of the big three.
Score 78, grade BSouthwest Airlines
Southwest has carried billions of passengers with one passenger death in an accident, on flight 1380 in 2018. Its weak spots are a cluster of serious incidents since 2024, including two approaches that came far too low, and a fleet of 737s with no fly-by-wire.
Score 77, grade BEndeavor Air
Endeavor is Delta's own regional airline and flies Delta Connection CRJs. Nobody has died on an Endeavor flight in 20 years, but in February 2025 one of its jets landed hard at Toronto and ended upside down, with 21 people hurt. A run of wing-tip strikes and taxiing collisions since then keeps its score in the mid-70s.
Score 76, grade BPSA Airlines
PSA flies CRJ regional jets as American Eagle and is owned by American Airlines. In January 2025 one of its jets collided with an Army helicopter at Washington National and all 64 on board died. The NTSB blamed the FAA, the Army and air traffic control, not PSA, but the loss still weighs on its record.
Score 73, grade B
Mainline and regional airlines
Many US domestic flights are flown by regional airlines under contract to the big brands. SkyWest flies for United, Delta, American and Alaska; Endeavor flies as Delta Connection; PSA flies as American Eagle. Each has its own FAA certificate, pilots and maintenance, so each has its own page and its own place on this list.
The pages for United, Delta, American and Alaska score the mainline airline only. They describe crashes on their regional brands, such as the 2025 Endeavor crash at Toronto on the Delta page, but those events count against the airline that flew the aircraft.
How the order is built
The accident record carries 40% of each 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 network for 10%. All US airlines share the same regulator, so oversight barely separates them here; the accident record, fleet age and incidents do. The list is those scores sorted from the highest down, and it moves when we update a page.
What the top airlines have in common
Delta, American, United and Alaska have had no fatal mainline crash since 2001 or earlier, and Southwest's only passenger death in an accident was on flight 1380 in 2018. What separates the big airlines is fleet age and recent incidents. Airlines with young, all-Airbus or recent Boeing fleets and few serious incidents rise; airlines with older jets, close calls or FAA fines lose points. The regional airlines sit lower mainly because of their accidents, not because they follow weaker rules.
What the score does not tell you
Flying with any airline on this list is very safe. The scores compare safety records and systems; they do not predict one flight. To check a specific trip, look up the flight number, which also shows the aircraft type and its own score. For factors and thresholds, see how we score airlines.
Questions
What is the safest airline in the United States?
The airline at the top of this list has the highest score we give any US carrier right now. The gaps near the top are small, and every US airline flies under the same FAA rules, so treat the leaders as a group. The airline pages show which factor sets each one apart.
Are regional flights less safe than mainline flights?
Regional airlines follow the same FAA rules for scheduled airlines as the mainline carriers. Their flights use smaller aircraft at smaller airports, and most of the deadly US airline crashes of the last 25 years have been regional flights, including Colgan Air 3407 in 2009 and the PSA collision at Washington National in January 2025. The NTSB blamed the FAA, the Army and air traffic control for the Washington collision, not PSA.
How do I know which airline operates my flight?
The booking shows it as "operated by", for example "operated by Endeavor Air DBA Delta Connection". The flight number belongs to the brand you bought, but the crew, the aircraft and the safety record belong to the airline that operates it. Look that airline up here.
Why is a big airline below a smaller one?
Size is not a factor. Our accident record factor is measured against how much an airline flies, and points also go for fleet age, serious incidents and regulator actions. A large airline with an old fleet or a run of incidents can sit below a smaller one with a young fleet and a clean record.
Is Hawaiian Airlines still a separate airline?
Hawaiian keeps its own brand, but since October 2025 it flies under Alaska Airlines' FAA certificate. We still score it on its own page, because its fleet, network and record are different from Alaska's.