7 ms·

This is a great article, with one exception: There have been a handful involving regional affiliates, but the majors have been virtually accident-free Now, I

This is a great article, with one exception: There have been a handful involving regional affiliates, but the majors have been virtually accident-free Now, I realize that even including those the stats are still fairly good, but it makes the "virtually accident-free" stats of majors a result of spinning off risk to affiliates, which is not something a consumer should care about. It might be a bit of a nit-pick (as it's still a handful), but moving things into different brands to avoid stigma is a common and, in my opinion, unhealthy practice.

smackfu 13y ago
Agreed. Those two flights that crashed were flown as Delta Connections and Continental Connections, and booking a flight on the "majors" to a smaller market could easily book you on one of those flights for a shorter leg. It's not like you can just fly majors only to be safer or anything.
JshWright 13y ago
Indeed... In fact, if you asked the passengers of Colgan Air Flight 3407 what airline they were flying, I suspect the vast majority would say 'Continental'
darkarmani 13y ago
And the best comment on the article points out that this is even worse than it appears: ========= "I'm sorry, but it's just wrong to say that. Yes, it may have technically been a ComAir flight that crashed in 2006 in Lexington, killing all 50+ people aboard (aside from the first officer), but those people booked a Delta flight, not a ComAir flight, so why make the distinction? And, yes, it may have been a Colgan flight that crashed in Buffalo in 2009, also killing 50 people, but they booked their flight on Continental. Major airlines ferret out their regional connections to these airlines all the time, and you don't know you're on one unless the flight attendant announces it (or you just happen to know about aviation), so why on Earth is this guy making a distinction? I'm a fairly frequent flyer on USAir (enough for mid-level status) and I can't tell you how often I book a USAir flight but I'm actually flying Republic or Chautauqua. Yes, air travel is safe, but let's not ignore reality just to make a (false) point. There have been recent and very deadly crashes since 2001."
- ryanhuff 13y ago
  My experience is that the typical online flight booking websites show when a flight is serviced by an affiliate. That's typically a clue that the flight will be on a smaller regional jet.
  - baddox 13y ago
    Every regional flight I have booked through a major airlines has prominently shown both the affiliate airline and the type of aircraft.
  - anthemcg 13y ago
    I think the point remains though. The average consumer doesn't know the difference between a "major" airline and a "regional" one and shouldn't need to. Their safety record is just as applicable. Its not as if a consumer will see a regional affiliate and change their reservation because of it; its effectively the same experience.
ilyagr 13y ago
You're right, but it's important that a smaller aircraft implies fewer potential casualties. The best thing would be to rate accidents by the log of the actual number of casualties, but that's not too intuitive.
brown9-2 13y ago
Could it be that rather than a distinction between the big airlines and the small airlines, the author was attempting to make a distinction between flights with large amounts of passengers (100-200+) and flights of smaller size (50ish)? I think the point is that there was a streak of 12 years with no fatal incidents of a large-size jet.
- jcdavis 13y ago
  ...in North America, which is just more fact-twisting by the author. Lets not forget that 228 people perished when the flight crew of Air France 447 flew the plane straight into the ocean.
  - 2mur 13y ago
    Well didn't really fly so much as fell out of the sky into the ocean. Absolutely terrifying.
  - gonzo 13y ago
    If by "flew" you mean "stalled", then yes.
    - hga 13y ago
      Well, it wasn't your standard controlled flight into terrain, but since one of the pilots was pulling back on his hand stick for the entire time.... (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sullenberger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sullenbe...).
- redblacktree 13y ago
  Of course, he could have said that instead.

smackfu 13y ago

Agreed. Those two flights that crashed were flown as Delta Connections and Continental Connections, and booking a flight on the "majors" to a smaller market could easily book you on one of those flights for a shorter leg. It's not like you can just fly majors only to be safer or anything.

JshWright 13y ago

Indeed... In fact, if you asked the passengers of Colgan Air Flight 3407 what airline they were flying, I suspect the vast majority would say 'Continental'

darkarmani 13y ago

And the best comment on the article points out that this is even worse than it appears: ========= "I'm sorry, but it's just wrong to say that. Yes, it may have technically been a ComAir flight that crashed in 2006 in Lexington, killing all 50+ people aboard (aside from the first officer), but those people booked a Delta flight, not a ComAir flight, so why make the distinction? And, yes, it may have been a Colgan flight that crashed in Buffalo in 2009, also killing 50 people, but they booked their flight on Continental. Major airlines ferret out their regional connections to these airlines all the time, and you don't know you're on one unless the flight attendant announces it (or you just happen to know about aviation), so why on Earth is this guy making a distinction? I'm a fairly frequent flyer on USAir (enough for mid-level status) and I can't tell you how often I book a USAir flight but I'm actually flying Republic or Chautauqua. Yes, air travel is safe, but let's not ignore reality just to make a (false) point. There have been recent and very deadly crashes since 2001."

ryanhuff 13y ago
My experience is that the typical online flight booking websites show when a flight is serviced by an affiliate. That's typically a clue that the flight will be on a smaller regional jet.
- baddox 13y ago
  Every regional flight I have booked through a major airlines has prominently shown both the affiliate airline and the type of aircraft.
- anthemcg 13y ago
  I think the point remains though. The average consumer doesn't know the difference between a "major" airline and a "regional" one and shouldn't need to. Their safety record is just as applicable. Its not as if a consumer will see a regional affiliate and change their reservation because of it; its effectively the same experience.

ilyagr 13y ago

You're right, but it's important that a smaller aircraft implies fewer potential casualties. The best thing would be to rate accidents by the log of the actual number of casualties, but that's not too intuitive.

brown9-2 13y ago

Could it be that rather than a distinction between the big airlines and the small airlines, the author was attempting to make a distinction between flights with large amounts of passengers (100-200+) and flights of smaller size (50ish)? I think the point is that there was a streak of 12 years with no fatal incidents of a large-size jet.

jcdavis 13y ago
...in North America, which is just more fact-twisting by the author. Lets not forget that 228 people perished when the flight crew of Air France 447 flew the plane straight into the ocean.
- 2mur 13y ago
  Well didn't really fly so much as fell out of the sky into the ocean. Absolutely terrifying.
- gonzo 13y ago
  If by "flew" you mean "stalled", then yes.
  - hga 13y ago
    Well, it wasn't your standard controlled flight into terrain, but since one of the pilots was pulling back on his hand stick for the entire time.... (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sullenberger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sullenbe...).
redblacktree 13y ago
Of course, he could have said that instead.