The world's safest airlines have been named by Airline Ratings, an independent website that concentrates on plane safety and product ratings. The website conducted two lists: one for the top twenty airlines and one for the top ten low-cost airlines. Airline Ratings does not rate the airlines in numerical order because the standards of operational safety are so high and very close together. Instead, one overall winner is selected and for 2016, the award goes to Quantas for the third year running. The full list (in alphabetical order) is as follows: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia. It's fantastic to see that an Irish airline has bagged a spot on the low-cost airline list, fair play to Aer Lingus. Brilliant stuff for Aer Lingus The low-cost airlines in alphabetical order are: Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet. Speaking about the results, Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline Ratings said: "Our top safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new more advanced aircraft." "These airlines are always at the forefront for excellence in the safety space. "However there is no question amongst the editors that Qantas remains a standout in safety enhancements and best practice".