Study names discount carrier Spirit as Safest Airline of 2024

UNDATED (WKRC) - Ultra-low cost carrier Spirit was named the safest airline of 2024 by WalletHub.

The personal finance company ranked the nine largest carriers in the United States, as well as one reginal airline. The company compared the carriers across several metrics in these five categories:

• Best Airline Overall - Alaska Airlines
• Most Affordable Airline - Spirit Airlines
• Most Reliable Airline - Delta Air Lines
• Most Comfortable Airline - Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways
• Safest Airline - Spirit Airlines

The Florida-based airline topped two categories, coming in third overall, behind Alaska Airlines and Skywest.

In deciding the safest airline, WalletHub examined the following metrics:

• The number of fatalities from 2018 to 2023
• The number of injuries in aviation incidents and accidents from 2018 to 2023
  
• Average fleet age

"For each airline, we divided the number of incidents and accidents by the total number of flight operations," WalletHub wrote.

Spirit also secured the number one spot for WalletHub's Most Affordable Airline, with rival Frontier placing second.