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Air safety: Flying into the unknown
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Upstart airlines
Are new carriers any less safe?
When a One-Two-Go flight from Bangkok crashed in Phuket in September, killing 89, it was a sobering reminder that safety monitoring in Asia and elsewhere may not be keeping pace with the rapid growth of upstart carriers. While it is far too soon to speculate on the causes of the Phuket accident, the early details had a familiar ring: a new airline and an attempt to land a 24-year-old plane in poor weather conditions. The Thai crash also revived memories of the defunct budget carrier Phuket Airlines, which was banned by the U.K. and France after a series of safety lapses in 2005. It later stopped flying due to financial troubles.
Safety experts point out that there's no reason to believe that newcomer carriers are any less safe than those that are established. In fact, many—such as India's Kingfisher—are well financed and fly new aircraft. But experts do note that evaluating the safety record of a new airline is difficult because there's little to go on.
Russia's track record with new carriers has also raised concerns: The country recently cracked down on some of its upstarts, banning or restricting nine for safety violations. The EU had also threatened to ban one of the higher-profile Russian airlines, Pulkovo, which suffered a crash in 2006 and whose safety practices had been deemed lacking by European inspectors. In the end, the EU took no action against Pulkovo; the carrier has since merged with Rossiya Airlines.
So what is a consumer to do? Experts advise looking at the average age of the fleet (younger is better) and at how long the company has been in business (even a two-year-old carrier has a more established safety record than a brand-new one). For a list of Web sites to help you with your research, see "Safety First". When information is scarce, Alex Bobilev, an expert on Russia with global security consultant iJet, has his own rule of thumb: "I'm not saying new airlines aren't safe, but if you want assurance, go with the brand name."
–B.S.P.
Safety first
Best resources for airline safety records
Data on fatal accidents organized by airline, country, and year can be found on this Web site run by aviation safety expert Todd Curtis, a former airline safety analyst with Boeing and the author of Understanding Aviation Safety Data.
The Web site of the Aviation Safety Network, part of the respected Flight Safety Foundation, tracks major airline accidents and serious incidents.
The European Union's list of banned or restricted airlines is updated several times a year.
The FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment grades countries as Category 1, meaning they meet standards set forth by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), or Category 2, meaning they don't. While it doesn't list individual airlines, you can assume that carriers operating from a Category 2 country aren't getting proper scrutiny.
The International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) evaluates the operational management and control systems of individual carriers. Click on "IOSA Registry" for a list of all the member airlines that have passed. Not all airlines belong to IATA, however, and small domestic carriers may not be covered.
ICAO's Web site is an excellent resource, with links to an extensive list of governmental and nongovernmental aviation Web pages. Click on "Publications" to download current and past issues of the dense-but-informative ICAO Journal.
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