Airlines/United Kingdom
Is British Airways safe?
UK flag carrier. Last fatal accident was the 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision (BEA predecessor). No fatal accidents in 50 years.
A modelled estimate and protected opinion, not a factual safety verdict. Informational only, not safety or travel advice, provided as-is. See our terms & disclaimer.
Operator safety tier
Elite
Modelled fatal-accident risk on the order of 1 in 11 million flights.
A model estimate from validated signals (the dominant factor in a flight's safety), not a measurement of this airline's own flight history. IOSA-registered; last fatal accident 1976 (50y ago). Full methodology.
Safety signals
Fleet
Counting every airframe we hold for this airline's code, which is more than the fleet figure in our carrier data (254). The table below lists them.
The actual aircraft in British Airways's fleet
Individual airframes we hold for British Airways, with build years taken from public registries and sourced references. These are the specific aircraft you might be boarding, not an industry average. Where we cannot date enough of a subfleet we leave the age blank rather than estimate it.
| Aircraft | In our registry | Average age | Built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A320 (ceo) | 45 | 18.6 yrs | 2002 to 2014 |
| Boeing 777-200 / 200ER | 44 | 26.7 yrs | 1995 to 2009 |
| Airbus A320neo | 35 | 4.4 yrs | 2018 to 2026 |
| Airbus A319 | 23 | 23.9 yrs | 1999 to 2007 |
| Airbus A321neo | 20 | 4.6 yrs | 2018 to 2025 |
| Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner | 18 | 10.3 yrs | 2015 to 2018 |
| Airbus A350-1000 | 18 | 5.4 yrs | 2019 to 2023 |
| Boeing 777-300ER | 16 | 12.1 yrs | 2010 to 2020 |
| Airbus A380-800 | 12 | 12.5 yrs | 2012 to 2016 |
| Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner | 12 | 11.3 yrs | 2013 to 2018 |
| Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner | 12 | 4.3 yrs | 2020 to 2025 |
| Boeing 737-800 | 1 | not enough dated | 2016 |
We can date 45 of the 45 Airbus A320 (ceo) airframes we hold for British Airways. They average 18.6 years old, built between 2002 and 2014.