2014 was a good year for airline safety, though that may be hard to believe considering the two Malaysia Airlines tragedies and recent AirAsia crash.
According to aviation-news website Flightglobal, there were 19 fatal accidents in 2014, down from 26 in 2013. However, overall deaths increased, with 671 last year, compared to 281 in 2013.
Airline product and safety-ratings website AirlineRatings.com recently announced its top 10 safest airlines for 2015. The rating system considers a number of factors, including Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organization audits, fatality records, incident records and operational history.
Each airline's safety is rated on a seven-star assessment criteria scale.
World's safest airlines
With a full seven stars, Qantas maintained the top spot with its fatality-free record. The airline was ranked first.
The rest of the top-ranked airlines include:
There were 449 airlines included in the report; of those, 149 received a seven-star safety ranking.
World's least safe airlines
Nearly 50 airlines received three stars or less. Some of the low-ranked airlines include Yeti Airlines, Air India Express, ASKY Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, Tajik Air and Spice Jet.
Four airlines -- Kam Air, Nepal Airlines, SCAT Airlines and Tara Air -- received a single-star rating from AirlineRatings. They are banned from operating within the European Union.
Some of the reasons why a given airline loses stars, include having its fleet grounded by its country's aviation safety authority, or only operating Russian-built aircraft.
The rankings do not penalize airlines for fatalities that were not the fault of the airline, including terrorist acts.