World’s Safest Airlines In 2012

The Germany-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Center, or Jacdec, just released its annual list of the world’s safest airlines, and not one North American carrier made the top 10.

Indeed, the uppermost portion of the list is dominated by carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, most of which have not had a single aircraft loss since 1983.

The center calculates its annual rankings based on aircraft loss accidents and serious incidents over the past 30 years. The resulting index relates that information to the revenue per passenger kilometer (rpk) earned by the airline over the same period.

Jacdec counted 496 fatalities on commercial passenger flights in 2012, two fewer than 2011. The year’s deadliest accident occurred in June on a Dana Air flight that crashed in Nigeria, killing 163 people. Another crash in Pakistan involving a Bhoja Air flight killed 127 in April.

Neither Dana Air nor Bhoja Air was included in the Jacdec survey, which looked at the 60 largest carriers in operation. Of those studied, China Airlines came in dead last, followed by TAM Airlines, Air India, GOL Transportes Aereos and Korean Air. Saudia, Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways, South African Airways and SkyWest Airlines also landed in the bottom 10.

So which airlines came out on top? Scroll through the slideshow above for a look at the safest airlines in the world.