HÀ NỘI — National carrier Vietnam Airlines and its member budget carrier Jetstar Pacific have been awarded the highest ranking for safety with 7-stars from the world’s only safety and product rating agency AirlineRatings.com.

After careful evaluation and feedback from the airline and aviation industry AirlineRatings.com has revised its seven-star safety rating system to give more importance to IOSA and this move elevates the two airlines up to 7-stars – the highest ranking.

AirlineRatings assesses the safety of each airline based on accredited standards of organisations including the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), and approval for flights from the EU. At the same time, AirlineRatings introduces its own criteria such as no accident resulting in passenger or crew casualties during the last 10 years.

Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific meet all criteria in this rating, sharing the same ranking as Singapore Airlines, British Airways, American Airlines and Emirates.

AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas congratulated Vietnam Airlines on this achievement.

“For a long time Vietnam Airlines has been an important part of the economy of Viet Nam, to many,” said Thomas, “The airline has a very modern fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft and operationally is now up there with the very best.”

In 2017, Vietnam Airlines ensured the absolute safety of 140,000 flights, transporting nearly 22 million passengers.

Nguyễn Thái Trung, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Airlines, said: "In the process of building and developing, Vietnam Airlines always insists safety is the number one principle that can not be traded in all its activities. Flight safety is a long-term, continuous operation, characterised by rigorous standards and is influenced by the volatile nature of human consciousness and behavior, which requires constant monitoring and action to ensure absolute safety for hundreds of passengers on each flight."

For Jetstar Pacific, the company has passed more than 800 standards to receive the IOSA Safety Certification in September this year. The carrier operates the SMS-Safety Management System, which is approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of Việt Nam, ICAO and International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In the low-cost segment, Jetstar Pacific has a three-fifths rating, a quiet high rate compared with regional carriers, and equivalent to Jeju Air (South Korea), AirAsia Indonesia and Cebu Pacific (the Philippines). — VNS