The Safe Travel Barometer is an audit of airlines and their use of 20 health and safety measures both pre-flight and on-board.

Lufthansa was rated as the world’s leading airline with a score of 4.5 out of 5, having implemented “numerous” health and safety initiatives, according to Safe Travel.

These included transparency in communication of safety measures with passengers, mandatory facemasks, frequent cleaning of aircraft before and after every flight and blocking middle seats.

Lufthansa was also praised for introducing Covid-19 tests on arriving passengers at Munich and Frankfurt airports.

“The fundamental premise of Safe Travel Score is to benchmark travel brands’ initiatives to reduce traveller anxiety,” says Virendra Jain, Safe Travel co-founder and chief executive.

“Our independent rating, centered on traveller health and safety measures, establishes a baseline for travel brands, while equally offering travellers a glimpse into what they can expect in their journeys.”

Indian airline Vistara and Delta tied second spot globally with a score of 4.4 out of five. Airlines that made it to the global top 10, including Emirates, China Airlines and Air Asia, all achieved a Safe Travel Score of more than four out of five.

In Europe, Iberia, Vueling and Sun Express, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, made it into the top five. They were followed by Air Europa, KLM, Air France, Ryanair and Swiss.