Budget airlines have taken three of the top five places in a new safety index of 20 European carriers, built on accident records from 2016 to 2025. The index’s authors say a low place doesn’t make an airline unsafe, but Jet2 and Vueling finishing near the bottom will still raise eyebrows on Spain routes.

Three of the top five are budget airlines 

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines came out on top of the 2026 European Airline Safety Index with a score of 89 out of 100, with Ryanair close behind on 86 and Austrian Airlines third on 85.5. 

Norwegian (85) and SunExpress (84.5) complete the top five, which means three of the five best-scoring airlines are low-cost carriers. Ryanair dropped just two points on its accident record, for two non-fatal accidents in 2023.

Further down, British Airways shares sixth place with Air France and Iberia on 83.5, as easyJet finishes 12th on 82.

“Many travellers assume that a cheaper ticket means accepting more safety risk, but the data doesn’t support this,” Anton Radchenko, chief executive of AirAdvisor, told Euronews Travel. He added that the price of a ticket tells you “very little about how safe an airline is”.

Accident records count for 40 per cent of the score

The index was put together by AirAdvisor, a company that helps passengers claim compensation for delayed and cancelled flights. It compared the 10 largest low-cost and 10 largest traditional airlines in Europe, picked by how many flights they operated in 2025 according to Eurocontrol (Europe’s air traffic management body).

Each airline was scored across six areas. Its accident history from 2016 to 2025, taken from the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) annual safety reports, makes up 40 per cent of the total points. Certification and audits count for 20 per cent, safety management systems (the internal reporting and flight-data checks airlines run day to day) for 15 per cent, then fleet age and pilot training for 10 per cent each and financial stability for the last 5 per cent.

That mix explains a few surprises too. British Airways, SAS and Eurowings all had perfect accident records over the decade, but still finished outside the top five once the other factors were added in.

Why a lower place doesn’t mean an unsafe airline

So it’s worth being clear on what the ranking can and can’t tell you. AirAdvisor itself said the index is “comparative and should not be read as a measure of whether any individual airline is safe or unsafe”, and it describes serious accidents in European commercial aviation as exceptionally rare.

Much of the scoring outside the accident record also relies on publicly available regulatory and company information rather than independent inspections, and the company hasn’t published a full category-by-category breakdown for every airline.

It’s also only 20 airlines being analysed, so carriers including Air Europa, TUI and Volotea, which fly plenty of Spain routes, weren’t assessed at all.

Where Jet2 and Vueling landed

The bottom of the table will catch the eye of anyone booked on a Spain route this winter. Barcelona-based Vueling, part of the same group as Iberia and British Airways, finished 17th on 77, with Jet2 18th on 73. SWISS was 19th on 72.5 and Turkish low-cost airline Pegasus last on 64.5.

AirAdvisor didn’t explain why exactly those airlines scored lower and which factors were the lowest scorers for each. However, the overall gap between budget and traditional airlines was small, with low-cost carriers averaging 79.2 against 82.8 for the traditional ones.

Budget airlines actually did better on aircraft, averaging 7.8 out of 10 for their fleet age and technical profile against 7.1 for older companies, with Wizz Air and Pegasus both getting full marks. As Radchenko put it, an older aircraft that’s properly maintained “can continue operating safely for decades”.

Why it’s not the same list as January’s ranking 

It isn’t the first airline safety league table of the year either. In January, AirlineRatings’ annual global ranking named Turkish Airlines the safest full-service carrier in Europe and put easyJet fifth among the world’s low-cost airlines.

The two lists use different methods, so they don’t line up neatly, and neither tells you much about the disruption passengers actually run into on board. So if your usual airline sits lower than you’d hoped, AirAdvisor’s own advice is that it shouldn’t be read as unsafe, and the full table is on its website for anyone weighing up airlines before booking their next trip.

There are few things more unsettling on a flight than realising the aircraft is suddenly going down, and it is even worse when you are thousands of metres above the ground with no idea why. British Airways passengers experienced exactly that on Monday when their flight to Chicago lost more than 8,500 metres of altitude before turning around and heading back to London.

The Boeing 777 had been making its way across the Atlantic when the dramatic descent began, forcing the crew to declare an emergency and abandon the transatlantic journey. It comes just days after the extraordinary flydubai incident that saw another passenger flight plunged into an emergency over the Middle East.

British Airways plane drops 8,500 metres over Ireland

BA295 left London Heathrow at around 11:50am on Monday, October 5, bound for Chicago O’Hare on what should have been an eight-hour-and-40-minute journey. Around an hour after take-off, the Boeing 777 had reached a cruising altitude of approximately 37,000 feet when something went wrong over Ireland. Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft rapidly descending to around 9,000 feet, a difference of roughly 28,000 feet, or more than 8,500 metres, in a matter of minutes.

The crew also transmitted the 7700 emergency code, alerting air traffic control that the aircraft was experiencing a general emergency. Instead of continuing west towards Chicago, the pilots turned the aircraft around and began heading back towards London.

BA flight circles before returning to Heathrow

The Boeing 777 did not immediately return to Heathrow. After turning around, the aircraft spent several hours flying over the UK and surrounding waters, with tracking data showing it circling over the Bristol Channel and travelling over parts of Devon and south-west Wales before making its way back towards Heathrow.

The reason for the lengthy flight back was the amount of fuel still on board. BA295 had been prepared for a transatlantic journey, meaning it had far more fuel than it would need for a short return to London. The aircraft therefore spent time in the air burning fuel before landing. The flight eventually touched down safely at Heathrow at around 5pm, almost five hours after leaving London. The passengers had expected to arrive in Chicago, but instead found themselves back at the airport they had left that morning.

British Airways confirms technical problem

British Airways has confirmed that the aircraft experienced a technical issue, although the airline has not said what the problem was. A spokesperson said: “The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority,” and confirmed that the aircraft landed safely after the pilots returned to Heathrow.

Passengers were able to leave the aircraft normally, with the airline saying its teams were working to get their travel plans back on track. Reports have also emerged of oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling inside the aircraft, with passengers reportedly using them during the incident. British Airways has not confirmed that a cabin pressurisation problem caused the descent, so the exact reason for the sudden loss of altitude remains unknown.

The 7700 code used by the crew does not reveal what went wrong. It is the standard transponder signal for a general emergency rather than a code identifying a particular technical failure. The airline has not yet provided further details about the fault that prompted the crew to abandon the journey to Chicago.

Passengers forced to abandon Chicago trip

For the passengers on flight BA295, the emergency brought their plans to Chicago to a sudden pause, with British Airways now working on how to get the passengers back on their original travel plans as quickly as possible.  With several other Heathrow-to-Chicago services still scheduled, the passengers could potentially continue their journey later than planned, although the airline has not said which flights they will be offered we just hope that the next one doesn’t decide to take the plunge and lands them safely at their destination.

There are few things more unsettling on a flight than realising the aircraft is suddenly going down, and it is even worse when you are thousands of metres above the ground with no idea why. British Airways passengers experienced exactly that on Monday when their flight to Chicago lost more than 8,500 metres of altitude before turning around and heading back to London.

The Boeing 777 had been making its way across the Atlantic when the dramatic descent began, forcing the crew to declare an emergency and abandon the transatlantic journey. It comes just days after the extraordinary flydubai incident that saw another passenger flight plunged into an emergency over the Middle East.

British Airways plane drops 8,500 metres over Ireland

BA295 left London Heathrow at around 11:50am on Monday, October 5, bound for Chicago O’Hare on what should have been an eight-hour-and-40-minute journey. Around an hour after take-off, the Boeing 777 had reached a cruising altitude of approximately 37,000 feet when something went wrong over Ireland. Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft rapidly descending to around 9,000 feet, a difference of roughly 28,000 feet, or more than 8,500 metres, in a matter of minutes.

The crew also transmitted the 7700 emergency code, alerting air traffic control that the aircraft was experiencing a general emergency. Instead of continuing west towards Chicago, the pilots turned the aircraft around and began heading back towards London.

BA flight circles before returning to Heathrow

The Boeing 777 did not immediately return to Heathrow. After turning around, the aircraft spent several hours flying over the UK and surrounding waters, with tracking data showing it circling over the Bristol Channel and travelling over parts of Devon and south-west Wales before making its way back towards Heathrow.

The reason for the lengthy flight back was the amount of fuel still on board. BA295 had been prepared for a transatlantic journey, meaning it had far more fuel than it would need for a short return to London. The aircraft therefore spent time in the air burning fuel before landing. The flight eventually touched down safely at Heathrow at around 5pm, almost five hours after leaving London. The passengers had expected to arrive in Chicago, but instead found themselves back at the airport they had left that morning.

British Airways confirms technical problem

British Airways has confirmed that the aircraft experienced a technical issue, although the airline has not said what the problem was. A spokesperson said: “The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority,” and confirmed that the aircraft landed safely after the pilots returned to Heathrow.

Passengers were able to leave the aircraft normally, with the airline saying its teams were working to get their travel plans back on track. Reports have also emerged of oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling inside the aircraft, with passengers reportedly using them during the incident. British Airways has not confirmed that a cabin pressurisation problem caused the descent, so the exact reason for the sudden loss of altitude remains unknown.

The 7700 code used by the crew does not reveal what went wrong. It is the standard transponder signal for a general emergency rather than a code identifying a particular technical failure. The airline has not yet provided further details about the fault that prompted the crew to abandon the journey to Chicago.

Passengers forced to abandon Chicago trip

For the passengers on flight BA295, the emergency brought their plans to Chicago to a sudden pause, with British Airways now working on how to get the passengers back on their original travel plans as quickly as possible.  With several other Heathrow-to-Chicago services still scheduled, the passengers could potentially continue their journey later than planned, although the airline has not said which flights they will be offered we just hope that the next one doesn’t decide to take the plunge and lands them safely at their destination.