New airline safety ratings web site

[SteveJohnson]

Geoffrey Thomas, who most people here would know as one of Australia's leading aviation journalists, has launched a new web site called AirlineRatings.com with safety and 'quality' ratings for airlines around the world.

Airline ratings system takes off

A Perth-based company today launches the world's most comprehensive airline rating system to take the guesswork out of air travel.

It combines, for the first time, an airline safety and product rating.

AirlineRatings.com, a joint venture between WA Newspapers and Aerospace Technical Publications International, has been developed by a team of internationally recognised editors led by The West Australian's award-winning aviation editor and author Geoffrey Thomas.

It rates more than 425 airlines from one to seven stars on safety and product quality.

Airline ratings system takes off - The West Australian

 

[fjc]

Here is the link

Airline Ratings

 

[Must...Fly!]

Not sure I'd be dishing out 7 safety stars to a couple of the airlines that have been given it but that's my opinion.

I can see why it was created but overall I am not sure how useful it could be as a source of information...

 

[UP4014]

I can see it's rubbish, they gave Air France 6 out of 7 for safety. :shock:

 

[Dino84]

I can see it's rubbish, they gave Air France 6 out of 7 for safety. :shock:

I stopped looking once I saw China Airlines had a 7/7 ranking :shock:

Scott.

 

[SteveJohnson]

Reading today a report that The West Australian plans a big round of redundancies affecting one in six journalists.

West Australian to make 'one-in-six' journalists redundant - mUmBRELLA

As Geoff Thomas is a journalist at The West Australian, maybe this new site is his attempt to start his own online venture ahead of taking redundancy? I certainly can't see that The West Australian needs a full-time aviation correspondent.

 

[anat0l]

One thing you have to give to the site is that they are actually working on a system of criteria in awarding their stars. This is not like say Michelin starring restaurants where when they "feel" an establishment deserves three, they get three or whatever that jazz.

I can see it's rubbish, they gave Air France 6 out of 7 for safety. :shock:

I believe that the only reason they have 1 less star than full is because they have had an accident resulting in fatality in the last ten years, which is directly attributable to the airline.

The safety rating system is based mainly on systems rather than incidents. Safety culture is not included either, but then measuring that would be subjective, but I assume some here would definitely rate Air France lower if safety culture were measured.

Personally I'd modify the fatality criteria such that if an airline had more than one incident involving a fatality in the last 15 years, the maximum they can attain is 3 stars. Then, I would charge that Air France would be in that fold, for killing that elderly Australian some years ago (the man was flying on a QF codeshare, AF had taken off in CDG without fixing the Y air conditioning system).

I would also modify the website and rating system so that each star is accounted for (i.e. with Air France, you can clearly see that it only got six stars for safety due to the one star lost on the incident with fatality criteria).

 

[harvyk]

I don't really trust any of the "this airline is safer than other airlines" type rating sites for 2 reasons.

1. Flying is typically very safe, the actual odds of been caught up in an accident or even an incident is pretty low, so even an "unsafe" airline is probably going to be safer than the car trip to the airport, which we do without thinking about it.

2. From an outsiders point of view, airlines which have had fatal accidents all to frequently seem to end up been "safer" than airlines which have not had recent or any accidents. I know that the point of these ratings systems is to determine the likelihood of an airline been caught up in a future event and that past performance is no indication of future performance, but....

 

[oz_mark]

As Geoff Thomas is a journalist at The West Australian, maybe this new site is his attempt to start his own online venture ahead of taking redundancy? I certainly can't see that The West Australian needs a full-time aviation correspondent.

Except that the site belongs to The West Australian.

 

[a330j]

Aeroflot get 7/7 for safety....mmmm