The safest airlines? Introducing the Air Transport Rating Agency’s Holistic Safety Rating
Although the European Union publishes a “black list” of dangerous airlines, there are real differences in terms of safety among the other airlines belonging to the “white list”. The Swiss rating agency Air Transport Rating Agency has used a scientific multi-criteria analysis approach that takes into account the complexity of airlines organizations in order to obtain results which are tangible, meaningful and that can be reproduced: the ATRA holistic safety rating.
Most of safety rankings are based on one single criteria which is accident statistics. This approach is very limited because accident rates are fortunately extremely low in commercial aviation and unable to derive any valid statistical interpretations beyond simple descriptive information. Indeed, the analysis of air disasters very often shows an accumulation of technical, human, organizational and external causes.
“Highly experienced pilots can handle technical and external problems very well; conversely flights without technical or external problems can go very well with very inexperienced pilots. However, the combination of technical or external problems and inexperienced pilots can be disastrous.” explains Jean-Pierre Otelli, aviation safety expert, author of reference books in Air disasters and Pilot errors.
Unfortunately, conjunction of very rare factors can occurred with any carriers and one single accident significantly impact company reputations. The innovative approach of the ATRA holistic safety rating takes into account airlines organizational parameters which contribute to general safety, without being necessarily directly attributed to safety management.
Using publicly available data sources, Air Transport Rating Agency has selected 15 criteria directly or indirectly contributing to flight safety. Quantitative parameters (such as the average age of the fleet) or qualitative parameters (such as the homogeneity of the fleet) were subjected to a multi-criteria mathematical analysis in order to generate a synthetic indicator and to present a meaningful holistic safety rating.
Like any unsolicited rating agencies, full detailed rating and competitive data report are available for professionals (airlines, insurance companies, financial analysts, etc.) from Air Transport Rating Agency. Technical report includes Airlines cluster analyses, correlations between selected parameters, multi-criteria rating calculations, etc. Special requests for ad hoc analyses are also possible such as advanced multi-criteria analyses of internal databases, sub-ratings by type of airlines, market or geographical area, experts’ reports, etc.
From a dataset of the 100 most important airlines44 airlines met the inclusion criteria for the multi-criteria analysis.
The top ten airlines 2011 (2009 data) from the holistic safety profiles are (by alphabetic order): Air France-KLM, AMR Corporation (American Airlines and American Eagles), British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.
The top 10 airlines of the “ATRA holistic safety rating” will be released to the general public every year thru the website www.ATRA.aero.
Airlines not refunding Air Passenger Duty face legal claims
The Air Travel Advisory Bureau, ATAB (www.atab.org.uk) is preparing for and will help coordinate legal claims against UK airlines that have not refunded Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax to passengers who have booked tickets but not flown.
ATAB estimates that since the tax was first introduced in 1994 some airlines have withheld tens of millions of pounds from their customers.
ATAB Chairman, Tony White said “It is a scandal that some airlines hang on to this money. It never belonged to them. It’s a tax collected on the behalf of the Government. With a couple of exceptions, most of the UK airlines make it as difficult as possible to get your money back. If you don’t actually fly, for whatever reason, you are entitled to get the APD refunded. The airlines already have your credit card details, they should refund your card immediately. They make it difficult or expensive in the hope that you’ll go away – and most people do just that”.
Over the past few months ATAB has been closely monitoring how different airlines behave when it comes to APD refunds.
“It is truly shocking, we’ve found some airlines that will charge an “administration fee” greater than the value of the refund. This is a complete rip-off and it’s our intention to put an end to it. If you have booked an airline ticket out of the UK anytime since 1994, and not flown, then we want to hear from you” said White.
ATAB has joined forces with London law firm Barker Gillette LLP in preparing for action. Partner Steven Barker said “Our primary aim will be to ensure that all claims are valid and properly made out. We hope and expect that Airlines will co-operate with us in agreeing and refunding valid claims and that claimants need only seek the assistance of the Courts in respect of legal issues that might not be agreed”
The original Air Travel Advisory Bureau (ATAB) was established in 1982 by Tony White. It was one of the first flight comparison organisations. With more than forty years of experience in the travel business, he decided to re-launch ATAB last year with the aim of informing travellers of their rights, lobbying for a fairer deal for air travellers and demanding transparency in the cost of airline tickets.
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