Best airline NYC/ Rome direct, using Airbus preferably? Is discount Norse a good idea even upgraded?

You might do better by just googling “airline safety ratings” and other similar terms
You’ll get a more well rounded answer

Nobody here is an expert on this topic

Scroll thru this forum
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation

Any airline allowed to fly to/from the EU is safe. If you want to fly Airbus direct from New York to Rome, you have two options. Delta or ITA.

The US government will not allow any airline to operate within the country that does no have a general level of safety. Similar to the EU.

All airlines will tell you the type of airplane scheduled to fly that route you may have to dig into the details.

I assume that your concern is Boeing’s recent well documented safety concerns?

If so, you can focus on just avoiding the 737-9 MAX. For example, Lufthansa still flies the
venerable 747 which has a great record of safety

The Boeing 777 and the 787 Dreamliner both have very good safety records.

We just flew Norse and it was significantly cheaper even with the add ons. Be sure to read all the fine print on weight limits for bags and carry ons because the do check. Overall for the cost it was well worth and we were on time both ways.

Norse Atlantic Airline is excellent. You will pay for checked luggage, choice seats and meals but for $760 Roundtrip from LAX to Oslo last summer — Norse sometimes has prices that are too good to pass up!

tweetygolf did you check luggage on Norse? Or just do carryon?

I flew Norse to London last year. I paid for seats, luggage, and meals from London. The flight was scheduled late from Florida and I do not eat that late. I had a long layover (unconnected flight) on London so decided to eat breakfast there.

My impressions: the food was the best airplane food I have ever had. The seats to London did not recline. It was a bit like a Spirit flight but much longer. I had three seats to myself so didn’t suffer but would have been miserable otherwise.

Norse is very inefficient at checking people in. Cannot do online and they take forever. I stood in line in London well over an hour.

I would do again if cheap enough or works in some other way. I was flying to Sardinia and all the flights flew out of Gatwick. It was a five hour layover so worked. My flight actually was not that much cheaper than other options once all was added together but they all went into Heathrow. On my return flight it seemed that lots of people bought last minute (lots of time in line to talk!) and Norse then was considerably cheaper than others then.

If you want direct these are the choices (Aircraft)

JFK:
ITA Airways- Airbus A330-900
Delta Airlines - Airbus A330-900 or Airbus330-300
American Airlines - Boeing 777-300
Norse Atlantic - Boeing 787-9

EWR:
United Airlines - Boeing 767-400 or Boeing 777-200