Pyrpolizer wrote:@Paphitis:
how would anyone know how safe an airliner is? Are there any publicly available indicators?
This site here says it replies on passengers for it's ratings (what would a passenger know about the safety of the aircraft??). They sure do know how to rate it's service though
http://www.airlineratings.com/search.php
It's a very difficult metric. You can look at the passenger reviews if you want but usually it's a bit more technical than that.
The country in which the airline is registered as an Air Operator is a big factor. That's because of the regulatory environment under which they operate. For instance, EASY as a British company with British registered aircraft under a British AoC is better than an airline registered in Indonesia or Russia.
Then it is about many other factors such as:
1) what aircraft types they operate
2) average age of the Fleet
3) Maintenance standards
4) culture and safety standards
5) how they recruit pilots and train them
6) safety record and aviation incidents
7) Fatigue Management and pilot rosters
commercial pressures on pilots - for instance can pilots delay flights due weather or fatigue9) safety management systems
10) Cockpit resource management training programs
11) multi crew interaction and command gradients (culturally influenced as Asia, Middle East are different to European)
12) and corporate branding. For example can't go wrong with the old established big legacy ones like Emirates, Qatar, BA, QANTAS, Lufthansa, Singapore, Cathay, Air France etc etc etc
13) salary levels - good legacy airlines pay big money. So they get the cream of the crop. Inexperienced pilots go to LCC and worse still to companies like Lyon Air in Indonesia etc. Captains are on 35k per month.
14) surveillance checking
15) check and training
16) Instrument and Sim Checks
17) simulator equipment
18) medical checks and psychological health surveillance (will they make pilots fly when they Mrs threw a knife at him and took the kids to the in laws etc)
There are a lot of factors.
Also, the law of economics. Low Cost Carriers are not as good as Business Airlines no matter what jurisdiction but a British LCC would be 10 times better than an Indonesian or Russian LCC and so forth.
Usually, it's the pilots who let the cat out the bag. Like for example when a western pilot flies for Garuda and leaves, they usually tell their mates about the internal operations and so forth.
