Airfare, departure times, flight length — these are the same old considerations for travelers who wish to book a flight.
But now, more are a latest factor: the aircraft itself.
One in five travelers said they’re doing more research into the plane they might be flying on before they book, while barely more (22%) said they’re limiting air travel for the remainder of the yr, based on a survey conducted in June by the digital analytics company Quantum Metric.
Overall, 55% of travelers said they’ve modified the best way they book flights due to recent news about aircraft and airlines, the survey showed.
The survey did circuitously mention Boeing, but a gradual stream of media coverage in regards to the company — from its quality control to business ethos — have dominated headlines since a door panel blew off a Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, 2024.
These stories have directed consumers’ focus to Boeing’s aircraft, which was something travelers didn’t use to listen to, said Danielle Harvey, global vice chairman and head of travel and hospitality strategy at Quantum Metric.
“Our research infers that fliers are doing more research to know and potentially avoid Boeing aircrafts,” she said.
The survey also showed 13% of respondents are avoiding discount carriers to feel safer about flying.
But this does not really make sense, said Brendan Sobie, independent aviation analyst and founding father of Sobie Aviation.
“Initially, there are more discount carriers operating Airbus (A320s) than Boeing (737s) particularly in Asia,” he said. “And the Boeing issues, after all, impact all airlines regardless of their business model.”
Fears up, risks down
As unnerving as recent headlines about Boeing could also be, aviation safety is improving by the last decade, based on Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of a research paper in regards to the risks of economic flights.
The paper, published within the Journal of Air Transport Management in August, states that the chance of dying on a industrial flight globally was 1 per 13.7 million passenger boardings from 2018 to 2022 — a big improvement from the last decade before, and much cry from the one death for each 350,000 boardings that occurred between 1968-1977.
Industrial safety standards may be evaluated by a wide range of metrics — from miles flow to flight hours — but based on MIT News, Barnett selected “deaths per passenger boarding” since it answers an easy query: If you’ve got a boarding pass for a flight, what are your odds of dying?
Barnett suggests several aspects have made flying safer, based on MIT News, including “technological advances, akin to collision avoidance systems in planes; extensive training; and rigorous work by organizations akin to the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board.”
But geographical disparities exist, according the report, which divides the world into three tiers in terms of flight safety:
- Tier 1: United States, the European Union and other parts of Europe, plus Australia, Canada, China, Israel, Japan and Latest Zealand
- Tier 2: Bahrain, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates
- Tier 3: Every other country
For Tier 1 and Tier 2, the death risk for flights between 2018-22 falls to 1 per 80 million passenger boardings, based on MIT researchers.
In Tier 3 countries, fatality risks were 36 times higher that of Tier 1 countries from 2018-2022, based on the report. But even amongst those countries, fatalities per boarding nearly halved during this time period, Barnett noted.
The study is a historical evaluation of economic flight safety, which doesn’t predict how Boeing’s issues may play out in the long run.
But Barnett indicated he’s confident in regards to the future of economic aviation.
“While the Alaska Airlines incident was definitely an emergency, the pilots responded immediately and landed the plane safely. Thus, the event shows that, even when things go terribly unsuitable, other elements of the air-safety system typically avert disaster,” he told CNBC Travel.
“Viewed in full, the incident says more in regards to the safety of flying than its dangers,” he said.
Why avoiding Boeing is difficult
Though competition amongst airlines is fierce, aircraft manufacturing has long been dominated by the USA’ century-old Boeing company and its European competitor, Airbus. Together, the 2 firms manufacture nearly all large passenger aircraft.
Thus, avoiding Boeing-manufactured aircraft is feasible, but not necessarily easy. Nonetheless, a lot of platforms, from Kayak to Alternative Airlines, allow travelers to filter flights by aircraft, an option added after two Boeing 737 Max airliners crashed inside a six-month period in 2018 and 2019.
Amongst those that wish to only fly Airbus, or who aim to avoid Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft, some will find this easier than others, said Harvey.
“Some airlines have a big variety of Boeing aircraft of their fleet, so it could mean that individuals would have to change airlines,” she said. “For the common traveler, this is not an issue, but for frequent travelers working to construct status, which may be less appealing and thus harder to do.”
Still, nothing is guaranteed.
After Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed on March 10, 2019, I paid an extra four-figure sum for my family to fly from Singapore to the USA to avoid traveling on a Boeing 737 Max.
Before the departure date, the airline emailed with minor changes to the departure time, and one other alteration that previously would have been a non-issue: a change in aircraft.
The brand new plane? A Boeing 737 Max.
