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Emirates And Etihad Soar In 2025 Global Airline Safety Ranking
Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai, and Air Arabia earn top safety rankings for 2025, positioning UAE airlines among the safest carriers globally.
Safety remains the paramount concern in global aviation, shaping traveler confidence in airlines around the world. In the latest 2025 airline safety rankings by AirlineRatings.com, UAE carriers — including Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai, and Air Arabia — have achieved outstanding results, cementing their positions among the safest airlines globally.
AirlineRatings.com evaluated 385 airlines across key safety metrics such as incident records, fleet age, pilot training, fleet size, financial health, and compliance with international safety standards including IOSA and ICAO audits. The UAE airlines’ high rankings underscore the region’s continued commitment to advanced safety protocols, operational excellence, and fleet modernization.
In the closely contested full-service airline category, Air New Zealand edged out Qantas by just 1.50 points to secure first place, thanks to a younger fleet. Emirates tied for third place alongside Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways, with all three airlines receiving identical high scores across fleet management, pilot skill, safety practices, and incident records.
Etihad Airways, the UAE’s national carrier based in Abu Dhabi, also secured a fifth place position in the full-service category, sharing the spotlight with renowned global airlines like ANA, Virgin Australia, and Korean Air.
In the low-cost carrier segment, flydubai and Air Arabia were recognized among the safest budget airlines worldwide, joining internationally respected brands such as easyJet, Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways.
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Sharon Petersen, CEO of AirlineRatings.com, emphasized the tight competition at the top of the rankings, noting that the difference often comes down to fleet age and operational consistency.
The strong performance by UAE airlines highlights the nation’s strategic investment in aviation infrastructure, rigorous pilot training programs, and adoption of cutting-edge aircraft technology. It also reinforces the UAE’s pivotal role in connecting global air routes and maintaining standards that travelers around the world trust.
As global air travel continues its post-pandemic recovery, passengers choosing UAE carriers can feel reassured by their reputation for world-leading safety and operational excellence.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
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