World's top 10 safest airlines named

The independent Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA), based in Switzerland, has ranked the ten safest airlines in a recent report. For the study, ATRA examined publicly available information on 15 criteria, such as the average age of the aircraft used or the homogeneity of the fleet.

The top ten airlines 2011 (2009 data) are (by alphabetic order):

• Air France-KLM
• AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles)
• British Airways
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Japan Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways

According to the agency, airline safety is not only about accident figures (such on the EU black list), but also about "technical, human, organisational and external" elements.
ATRA'S top 10 list is in contrast to the annual Skytrax survey that ranks airlines based on customer service. None of the airlines in the Skytrax top 10 made the ATRA's top 10 safety list.