SYDNEY, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian airline Qantas has been given the title of world's safest carrier on Friday by online rating website AirlineRatings.com.

Taking into account a range of factors from aviation governance, industry bodies, government audits, serious incident records, profitability, the age of airline fleets and safety initiatives, the site's Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said Qantas stood out among the 405 other airlines as the number one pick.

"It is extraordinary that Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the jet era," he said.

Also considered to be the world's most experienced airline in a 2008 test case by the British Advertising Standards Association, Qantas has operated continuously for 98 years prioritizing the use of flight data to monitor the performance of its machines and crew.

According to Thomas, another aspect of its safety success record is that the Aussie flyer employs "real-time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite communications, which has enabled the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue."

In 2018, 556 people lost their lives in one of the deadliest years on record for air travel.