The modern aviation industry is incredibly safe. So safe in fact that, on average, a passenger could fly every day for 16,581 years without experiencing a fatal flight. Furthermore, you’re about 95 times more likely to die from unitentional poisoning than on a plane. Despite that it is still true that in exceptionally rare circumstances planes do crash. I’ve combined figures from Airsafe.com to compile a list of the top 5 safest commercial airliners in service at the moment. So today I’ll be asking the question: what are the safest airliners you can fly in 2022?

5. Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321

The Airbus A320 Family is the second most succesful airliner ever after the Boeing 737. It has also outsold the Boeing 737 for pretty much every year since 2005. First introduced in 1988 with Air France, the family is relatively modern. And has since been developed into the A320neo (new engine option) family with an estimated 20% reduction in fuel burn.

In its entire life, A320s have been involved in 17 fatal accidents with 1,505 fatalities as of 2022. This may seem like a high number but in reality it is very low. Considering that the A320 is more or less making more flights than any other passenger aircraft (maybe being beaten by the Boeing 737).

I recently flew both a 22 year old Airbus A319 and a 4 year old A320neo (picture above). My full flight reviews are below:

• London to Geneva Flight Review, Aibus A319
• Geneva to London Flight Review, Airbus A320neo

Why haven’t I included the Boeing 737?

It’s worth noting that Boeing 737 NG (Next Generation) models (737-600/700/800/900) actually have a slightly better fatality rate than the Airbus A320. Therefore it might make sense to include it in this list. However, at the risk of being accused of Airbus bias, I have left it out for 2 reasons:

1. When looking at the 737 line as a whole the rate is much worse. Starting production in 1966, the Boeing 737 is the most popular airliner in history. But the original 737-100/200 had a pretty poor rate of fatalities per million flights of 0.62. The slightly newer 737-300/400/500s were also worse than the A320 with a rate of 0.15. Now, whilst most of these aircraft were scrapped long ago it is at its root the same as the Next Generation models we often fly today.
2. The whole Boeing 737 Max Scandal. I won’t go into the full details here but it is pretty damning for Boeing. The US Department of Justice found them guilty of “criminal misconduct“, “deception” and “defrauding regulators“. This ultimately led to 346 passengers on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. If you want to learn more Netflix have a great documentary called Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.

A combination of these two factors mean I won’t include the 737 on this list. It has also hugely clouded my opinions of Boeing, and I think it will leave a long-term blemish on their reputation. I at least won’t be flying on the 737 MAX out of principle.

4. Boeing 747-400

3. Embraer E170/E190

The Brazilian Embraer E-Jet Family are an exceptionally safe line of aircraft. The E170, the smallest variant, seats up to 78 passengers whilst the largest E195 seats up to 124 passengers. The Embraer E-Jet is an incredibly popular regional jet with almost 1,700 aircraft produced since its introduction in 2004. The series has subsequently been refreshed into the E2, which boasts a more modern and fuel efficient design.

Throughout it’s successful life only three Embraer E-Jets have suffered fatal incidents. Furthermore, none of these incidents were from faulty aircraft, rather human factors. According to Airsafe.com, this gives the Embraer E-Jet a fatal crash per million flights rate of just 0.03:

1. LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 where the pilot was concluded to have deliberately crashed the plane when the first officer went to the bathroom
2. Henan Airlines Flight 8387 where the plane crashed in heavy fog after the flight crew reportedly failed to follow proper safety procedures
3. Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554 where the flight was hijacked by 6 terrorists. The plane landed safely after passengers subdued the terrorists, and 2 hijackers later died of their wounds sustained from passengers.

This ultimately means the aircraft suffers from small overhead lockers and lack of head room. In fact, it’s the only aircraft I can remember banging my head on the ceiling of when standing up. Probably more my fault than the aircraft…

2. Aibus A380

As the largest passenger aircraft in the world it is vitaly important that the Airbus A380 is also one of the safest. Not only is this for Airbus’s reputation, but also because it’s sheer size means in can carry around 600 people. A single crash could potentially be the deadliest single aviation accident in history (currently standing at 583 people when two 747s crashed at Madeira). Obviously any plane crash resulting in death is tragic, but this many people would be even more so.

Having built 254 since it’s introduction with Singapore Airlines in 2007, Airbus hold an impressive record with the A380. And with the final model being produced in 2021 it’s entirely possible this aircraft could suffer no fatal events throughout its entire life. The A380 has an incredible safety record, but one airliner is even more impressive…

1. Bombardier CRJ-700

Built by the Canadian aerospace firm Bombardier, the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) series of jets is officially the safest passenger aircraft. It’s impressive to think that the Bombardier (formerly Canadair) CRJ700 series has been flying since its introduction in 2001 with no fatal incidents. Doubly so when you consider that 924 of these jets were built before prodution ceased in 2020. Whilst it has been involved in a few incidents, such as overshooting the runway, nothing more than minor injuries were sustained.

When comparing to the Airbus A380 which also has no fatalities, I’m giving the CRJ700 the award of safest aircraft. This is because, firstly, the CRJ700 has been flying for 6 years longer than the A380 with almost 4 times as many aircraft built. Secondly, the CRJ700 is a regional jet vs the long haul A380. These two factors combine to mean the CRJ700 has flown significantly more flights than the A380, so from a probability perspective performs better. After all, a single CRJ700 could be flying 4-5 flights per day vs 1-2 on the A380.

Depending on the variant the CRJ700 can hold anywhere from 66 to 104 passengers in a 2-2 seating configuration. I’ve never flown on one myself but I’ve heard due the the rear mounted engines it can be very loud. Therefore make sure you sit near the front to avoid the engine whine.

Honourable Mentions

There are 3 further airliners which arguably should be included at the top of this list due to their record of zero fatalities. The Airbus A350, Boeing 787 and Airbus A220. These are all very succesful aircraft, with hundreds of each produced and many more on various airlines order books. However, due to their newness I’ve chosen to omit them from this list. The A220 was first introduced in 2016, the A350 in 2015 and the 787 in 2011.

If I make this list again in a few years I will definitely include these 3 in my list, assuming no incidents of course.

More from me…

Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:

• Most Comfortable Aircraft to Fly On – if you want help deciding which aircraft to fly for your next flight.
• Best Airlines in the World – If you want to find out which airlines I think are better than British Airways, read this…
• Best Airline Alliances and why you should care– For a guide on how to decide between Oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam.

And if you fancy earning some fantastic rewards and Avios points through American Express, please use my referral links below: