Air transportation has taken the art of travel to unbelievable heights -- literally and figuratively. Still, there are some who are wary of taking to the skies so knowing what the right airline to use can go a long way.

For those who are eager to take flight in 2016, a safety and product rating website AirlineRatings.com has revealed their choices for the top twenty safest airlines and top ten low cost airlines out of the 407 they monitor.

Leading the prestigious pack of the safest airlines in 2016 for the third year is Qantas. The 95-year Australia-based airline boasts an impressive record of a fatality free history in the jet era. Backed with a flawless record and industry-leading technology, Qantas has been considered as the most experienced carrier around.

The rest of the world's safest airlines were listed in alphabetical order: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.

The ranking system involves audits governing bodies, lead associations and government, as well as the fatality record. The editorial team of the website also scoured the operational history, incident records and operational excellence of all the candidates.

To those who want to travel without breaking the bank, AirlineRatings.com also offered a top ten list of the safest low-cost airlines. Budget fliers do not have to sacrifice peace of mind. All the airlines in the editors' list have passed the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and possess impressive safety records.

The ten safest budget airlines are the following (in alphabetical order): Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly, Virgin America, Volaris and Westjet.

Although there still might be some who are sceptical about the thought of air transportation, an industry survey recently revealed that malicious acts are a bigger cause of airline deaths in 2015 than accidents are, according to a report from US News. This is for the second year in a row.

The report said that last year was a good year for air travel with only eight accidental airline crashes leading to 161 deaths, which is the smallest number of crashes and deaths since 1946. Malicious actions, including a Germanwings airliner that was flown into a mountainside and a Russian airliner packed that exploded over Egypt, amounted to a total of 374 deaths.