Airlines.

[alex]

It's a very limited study and the criteria is not great. Taking into account the homogeneity of the fleet is going to count against someone like Qantas who run all sorts of planes (from props up to Airbus) compared to a US carrier who probaby run 2 different planes and uses partner airlines for the small stuff. Stuff like that doesn't always translate into safer flying.

Not exactly correct. United Airlines operate 13 different aircraft types from 6 different manufacturers, Qantas only use 3 manufacturers.

No one can look past Qantas' problems in the last 12 months…

 

[Yossarian]

It might be 3 manufacturers but what 11 or 12 different aircraft? I'm not an expert but from experience, most of the times I've flown in the states, once you get down to the smaller aircraft it's a regional airline flying a codeshare for the bigger one.

I will confess these are my personal observations - I'm not an aviation expert.

 

[billy_ray]

<big>Agency names world's 10 safest airlines</big>
Yahoo!7
August 30, 2011, 10:09 am

Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa are the safest airlines in Europe, according to a new study ranking the 10 safest airlines by the Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA).

The safest US-based airlines are AMR Corporation, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways, while the safest from Asia is Japan Airlines, it said, without giving a ranking within the top 10.

The ATRA is a rating agency based in Geneva (Switzerland) dealing with aviation risk assessment and advanced data analyses in the aviation sector.

To obtain this classification, the first of its kind, ATRA examined publicly available information on 15 criteria, such as the average age of the aircraft used or the homogeneity of the fleet, it said.

The agency explained that to understand airline safety, one needed not only to look at accident figures, but also "technical, human, organisational and external" elements.

External factors such as environmental criteria are not taken into account.

"Even though the European Union publishes a 'blacklist' of dangerous airlines, there exists a real difference in safety between the other airline companies," ATRA added.

World's 10 safest airlines (in alphabetical order)

**Air France-KLM**
AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles)

British Airways

Continental Airlines

Delta Airlines

Japan Airlines

Lufthansa

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

US Airways

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/10143966/agency-names-worlds-10-safest-airlines/

Is not Air France the one that had those 2 really bad crashes?

 

[alex]

It might be 3 manufacturers but what 11 or 12 different aircraft? I'm not an expert but from experience, most of the times I've flown in the states, once you get down to the smaller aircraft it's a regional airline flying a codeshare for the bigger one.

I will confess these are my personal observations - I'm not an aviation expert.

All good. I'm a bit of an aviation nut haha. The US airlines run a similar business model to Qantas. When you take a regional flight with Qantas, you're on QantasLink, one of their subsidiaries. United Airlines have United Express, American Airlines have American Eagle, Delta have Delta Connection.

For those wondering what the criteria was, here it is:
* Net financial result
* Total number of passengers
* Total number of employees
* Total number of cabin crew employees
* Total number of aircraft
* Average fleet age in service
* Percentage of aircraft on order
* Fleet homogeneity
* Number of aircraft no longer in production
* Number of aircraft considered at risk
* Total aircraft-km flown
* In house maintenance capability
* Number of accidents during the last 10 years
* Dedicated flight academy pilot-training facilities
* Dedicated full flight simulators

A lot of the criteria doesn't exactly relate to safety and a lot of them are very vague… 😕

 

[smudge]

Flew Emirates return to the UK & Germany in 2006 (dated info I know) and fell off a dirtbike in Wales and cracked/broke a rib. Got to Frankfurt for the trip home and asked the check-in guy if I could have an aisle seat as I didn't want to have to climb over anyone to get to the toilets. Not a problem.

Just about to board and I was paged to the check-in counter. The same bloke looked at me and said "Haven't got you an aisle seat sir, but I have upgraded you to business class." What a boy!

Got to Dubai and tried the same story on a girl behind the counter - "Got a broken rib, was upgraded to business class from Frankfurt, any chance of business class to Melbourne etc…" No! I've got you an aisle seat, next please..."

Got on the plane and half the business seats were empty.

Emirates was brilliant to fly with. Worst trip ever was a code shared Qantas flight (BA) from London to Melbourne. Staff were lazy and didn't give a shite!"

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Yossarian]

It might be 3 manufacturers but what 11 or 12 different aircraft? I'm not an expert but from experience, most of the times I've flown in the states, once you get down to the smaller aircraft it's a regional airline flying a codeshare for the bigger one.

I will confess these are my personal observations - I'm not an aviation expert.

All good. I'm a bit of an aviation nut haha. The US airlines run a similar business model to Qantas. When you take a regional flight with Qantas, you're on QantasLink, one of their subsidiaries. United Airlines have United Express, American Airlines have American Eagle, Delta have Delta Connection.

For those wondering what the criteria was, here it is:
* Net financial result
* Total number of passengers
* Total number of employees
* Total number of cabin crew employees
* Total number of aircraft
* Average fleet age in service
* Percentage of aircraft on order
* Fleet homogeneity
* Number of aircraft no longer in production
* Number of aircraft considered at risk
* Total aircraft-km flown
* In house maintenance capability
* Number of accidents during the last 10 years
* Dedicated flight academy pilot-training facilities
* Dedicated full flight simulators

A lot of the criteria doesn't exactly relate to safety and a lot of them are very vague… 😕

Okay thanks for that info. As you say the correlations they make seem a bit tenuous…

 

[AJ1]

For anyone booking flights any time soon, this site is worth checking prior to selecting your airliner or seats as it gives you a pretty comprehensive summary of the planes layout:

http://www.seatguru.com/

I'm 195cm and with business class falling well outside my budget it's a great site to work out the best seats for legroom in economy. It also gives info such as; what types of food served, in-flight entertainment, electrical powerpoints, etc.

 

[Yossarian]

For anyone booking flights any time soon, this site is worth checking prior to selecting your airliner or seats as it gives you a pretty comprehensive summary of the planes layout:

http://www.seatguru.com/

I'm 195cm and with business class falling well outside my budget it's a great site to work out the best seats for legroom in economy. It also gives info such as; what types of food served, in-flight entertainment, electrical powerpoints, etc.

Yeah that is a good site. I used it to pick my seats for a trip I'm making to the US next year. The level of information is outstanding and the site is very easy to use.