Tell me more ×
Travel Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for road warriors and seasoned travelers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 13 down vote favorite
1

The world is full of different airlines ranging from ones with proven track records of safety and security to ones with old, poorly-maintained planes that are falling apart. Are there any resources for travelers to help determine which airlines are widely considered safe to fly?

share|improve this question
I thought TripAdvisor might allow people to review airlines like many other things, but no such luck. – hippietrail Sep 24 '11 at 16:49
2  
There are plenty of sites with crash statistics by airline, but generally almost all airlines are safer than alternative transport. Even if you look at remarkably crash-prone airlines in areas like Indonesia, you'll find that they're probably safer than driving or taking a ferry on the same route. – dbkk Sep 25 '11 at 14:41

2 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

I often just look up the Wikipedia article for the airline.

So for example, when in the 'stans earlier this year, I was considering airlines like Kyrgyzstan Aircompany - which as soon as you start reading the article, you'll find it's on the list of airlines banned from flying over the EU...., which quickly made up my mind about it. Although they were cheap...

The list of these airlines is a rather handy one, as it comes down to banning them due to not being up to scratch safety-wise, or for known poor levels of maintenance.

share|improve this answer
2  
+1, I'd first turn to Wikipedia too. Often, a quick look at the "Incidents and accidents" section (that most airline articles have) tells a lot. – Jonik Sep 24 '11 at 13:43
up vote 9 down vote

Whenever I fly with a dodgy airline like for example this summer with aerosvit, I check first this page. It doesn't look very sexy, but it really helps to get an overview about how other flyers have rated the airline.

You don't really get a safety report, but if a lot of traveller complain about the dirty and old looking plane, I suppose that the airline isn't the best and safest you can get.

If you're more the numbers guy, you could check this website that lists all airplane accidents. There is also a section that lists those accidents by airline. So you have an objective way to measure the safety of an airline.

Another interesting statistic you can find here. It lists the accidents per aircraft type. So you can assess the safety of an aircraft independent of the airline it is used by. One the same site you find also a statistic sorted by airlines.

This site is an useful resource if you want to dig deeper into the topic of air safety.

Last but not least, I want to add a fact that I read a lot but I'm not sure if it is true. But a lot of sources state that Qantas from Australia is the only airline with no fatal accidents in their whole history. So maybe the award of the safest airline should go to Qantas.

share|improve this answer
Downvoter please explain the reason so that I can improve the answer. – RoflcoptrException♦ Sep 24 '11 at 10:24
1  
It wasn't me, but I'm not a believer in ranking accidents against aircraft type. If an aircraft is unsafe, it wouldn't be deemed airworthy. If an aircraft is airworthy, it can be operated safely. True safety is really down to the operators of the aircraft. Also, the Qantas thing is not true. – Chris Burt-Brown Sep 24 '11 at 15:47
2  
Then again there is theoretical safety before a type of aircraft has seen a great deal of use and safety records after the problems have made themselves apparent... and hopefully fixed. QANTAS used to be famously incident free but that is sadly no longer true though there haven't been any major disasters they now seem to suffer minor incidents on a regular basis. – hippietrail Sep 24 '11 at 16:52
1  
Heard that one too, so decided to take a look. Apparently the technicality is that they've never had a fatal JET airliner accident. They, however, have certainly had other fatalities - there's an entire Wikipedia entry for it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Qantas_fatal_accidents – Mark Mayo Sep 26 '11 at 16:55
You're probably thinking of the movie "Rain Man". – Andrew Grimm Jan 1 '12 at 22:47

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.