After completing my wild award booking to and from Asia for this December, I briefly started looking at inter-Asia flights. My favorite low-budget carrier is AirAsia but passengers need to know that all AirAsia subsidiaries are not created equal. According to the website airlineratings.com, AirAsia Indonesia has a safety rating of 1/7 while AirAsia Malaysia was given a 4/7. To put that into perspective, Allegiant Airlines, often ridiculed by me and others, received a 5/7.
Besides regional carriers for my Asia booking, I was also trying to find a way to get from Morocco to Amman so I can catch my Etihad Apartment flight this fall. With no efficient route, I may scrap the Morocco segment but I did see the option to fly Ukraine International which connects in Kiev en route to Jordan for only $140 from AMS. I incorrectly assumed that this was not a safe airline because I had never heard of it. Indeed it receives a 6.7 safety rating.
Airlineratings.com provides a reference if you are booking a flight on an airline of which you are unfamiliar. If that airline is considered safe then you can rest easy. If it has a lower ranking but you are familiar with it, chances are you will dismiss the safety rankings as unimportant.
I will continue to fly AirAsia Malaysia because my personal experience has been positive and that is enough for me to rationalize that it is safe. At the same time, I would book a flight on Ukraine International because of its rating.
Thoughts anyone?
