by Thu Nguyen

Created on: August 15, 2010   Last Updated: August 16, 2010

Airline companies have to implement more than just the business aspect to encourage customers to come back. After all, ever since September 11, safety has become the number one concern. So to become one of the safest airlines in the world, many factors will be judged but the most prominent ones according to AirSafe are:

- passenger screening
- the number of plane crashes

- aviation safety for the employees
- accident investigations

Each year, the statistics compiled will shift the airlines of today lower to the ranks for those who have improved their safety in craft and work. So how can you find out what is the safest airline out there?

The only site which documents the current plane crashes by model and airlines is AirSafe. They pull statistics and update their sites with news and videos on the latest fatal crashes. Plus the information here spans back to 1970 to the present. There is a lot of information here in terms of aviation and safety news. Finding out if the airline you’re riding on has been in the news lately can be found here.

The Airline Safety Records builds up an archive which combines a year to five years combined to let you see the accidents, fatal accidents and incidents per 1,000,000 takeoffs. All the data is taken from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the US Dept of Transportation.

One of the leading groups to do research on services and have earned awards is JD Power Associates. Recently, they have put together a survey which rated the satisfaction of the services in airlines through 7 factors - reservation, check-in, boarding, aircraft, staff, service, cost and fee. The ratings are measured from low cost to traditional flights. Consequently, airports are also rated.

Known as the world airline awards, SkyTrax brings to light the world's best and brightest airlines who have provided great service in cost, class and more. The unique things about these awards are the results of which is derived from answers by passengers only. No employees participated in the survey. To be fair to others, awards are rewarded by word or mouth and positive feedback.

Finally, Flights Gone Bad is a blog which gives you news, tips and resources on flying. There is less statistics here and more reading which for users who don’t like charts, will find the information on site much more friendly to navigate around. Since the blog is fairly recent, updates may be not as consistent. However, the information is worth the visit as it integrates news from AirSafe and other safety organizations.

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