Airtran safety?

[lovemy3girls]

DH and I are flying Airtran to WDW in Aug., leaving 3 kids at home. I just read an article that said that Airtran is the most unsafe airline in the country. Now I am afraid to leave the kids and get on a plane! What are your experiences w/ this airline? Should I be nervous. I am not a thrilled with flying to begin with.....help!

 

[dvc guy]

Where did you read this? I have never heard anything about them one way or another. They fly a new fleet of 717 & 737.

 

[yellowfish78]

I've always flown Airtran the last 4 times that I've gone to Florida.
I'm still here, so their planes are good.
OK..honestly now.That was lame.
All airlines have standards that have to be met. They wouldn't fly if they didn't have safe planes.

 

[disneyfamilyof5]

My family of 5 used them to fly back and forth from WDW in 2005. They were very safe (obviously) and clean and most importantly, ON TIME!!

 

[lovemy3girls]

The website where I read this is www.ityt.com/airtran/. I know, it seems silly to worry about.....but I couldn't help it after reading this.

 

[snowbunny]

I checked out that site, had never heard of it. I would not take it as an authoritative source at all. The founder Daniel Baker seems to be an entrepreneur, not a pilot or airline expert.

Patrick Smith who writes Ask the Pilot at Salon magazine (online) is a former commercial airline pilot, and he's answered this type of question many times - his view is that ALL airlines in the U.S. and most in the world are very safe.

 

[dopeynme]

Hi! DF and I also had a good experience with Airtran.....clean, polite, safe and on time. The plane seemed very new. If you have doubts, maybe you can check stats from the FAA....they probably have a website, but I haven't checked!

 

[DebbieB]

I've flown AirTran many times without a problem. The ValuJet accident was almost 10 years ago with an old plane. They have all new planes now.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Air Tran does not have the greatest past safety record, but have improved in recent years.

 

[dvc guy]

After reading the web site it seems to me that the author has some kind of issue with Airtrain. To call the 717 an orphan plane make is seem as if Boing just dumped the planed in the market with no parts or support, which is not true. While the 717 is an off shoot of the MD 80-90 , it has new techonlogy and upgrades.

 

[gw_lit]

The website where I read this is www.ityt.com/airtran/. I know, it seems silly to worry about.....but I couldn't help it after reading this.

I would give any merit to that website, it seems the owner of that site has a bone to pick with AirTran. As others have stated, AirTran has one of the newest fleets in the industry and they have to meet the same safety regulations as other U.S. airlines. And remember, you're still more at risk of an accident in your car driving to the airport than you are on any airline flight.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

All airlines have to abide by the same FAA safety requirements / guidelines.

We travel AirTran numerous times a year & have never had any issues.

While it may be a false sense of security I do feel better flying in newer planes.

As for the ValueJet connection, logic says if your company was decimated because of an accident that was caused by poor safety practices you won't have those same practices anymore. Now, I know, who says businesses use logic but...

 

[CAP Aircrew]

I agree with all of the above posters. That site mainly quotes ValueJet which did have safety issues. Since then ValueJet went away and a new airline began as AirTran. The gov't regulations regarding the issues that brought down that ValueJet have become much more stringent. They don't fly the same planes as ValueJet did Airtran's fleet is probably one of the newest in the air. I've flown them and would not hesitate to fly them again.

 

[CarolA]

This site would falls under USELESS!!! This is trash talking... And I somehow don't think I would base any decisions on a 20 year old crash. There have been other crashes since then so why does the IDIOT running this site think this is the unsafest airline out there???? (Where is the idiots indictiment of AA, AirFrance, SW etc....)

Some sites are not worth the bandwidth.