Could a new MIT study rebuild your trust in flying after Boeing's shaken confidence?

These are the typical factors that travelers take into account when booking a flight, including airfare, departure times, and flight duration.

Now, a growing number of people are focusing on a new aspect: the aircraft itself.

A survey conducted in June by Quantum Metric found that one in five travelers are doing more research into the plane they may be flying on before booking, while 22% are limiting air travel for the rest of the year.

Recent news about aircraft and airlines has prompted 55% of travelers to alter their flight booking habits, according to a survey.

Since the door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, 2024, Boeing has been the focus of numerous media reports about its quality control and business ethics.

Quantum Metric's global vice president and head of travel and hospitality strategy, Danielle Harvey, stated that these stories have shifted consumers' attention to Boeing's aircraft, which was previously overlooked by travelers.

She stated that our research suggests that fliers are conducting more research to comprehend and possibly evade Boeing aircrafts.

13% of survey respondents avoid discount carriers to feel more secure while flying.

Sobie Aviation founder and independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie stated that the sentence doesn't really make sense.

""More discount carriers operate Airbus (A320s) than Boeing (737s) in Asia, and Boeing issues affect all airlines regardless of their business model," he stated."

Fears up, risks down

Despite recent unsettling headlines about Boeing, aviation safety is improving over time, as stated by Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at MIT and co-author of a research paper on the risks of commercial flights.

The paper published in the Journal of Air Transport Management in August reports that the global risk of dying on a commercial flight from 2018 to 2022 was 1 death per 13.7 million passenger boardings, a significant improvement from the previous decade and a far cry from the 1 death per 350,000 boardings that occurred between 1968-1977.

The evaluation of commercial safety standards can be done using various metrics, such as miles flow or flight hours. However, according to MIT News, Barnett selected "deaths per passenger boarding" as the metric because it directly answers the question: What is the probability of death if you have a boarding pass for a flight?

According to MIT News, Barnett states that several factors have contributed to the increased safety of flying, including technological advancements such as collision avoidance systems in planes, extensive training, and the rigorous work of organizations such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board.

According to the report, the world is divided into three tiers when it comes to flight safety due to geographical disparities.

• The United States, European Union, and other European countries, as well as Australia, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, and New Zealand.
• The countries in the list are Bahrain, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Tier 3: Every other country

MIT researchers report that the death risk for flights between 2018-22 is 1 per 80 million passenger boardings.

The report found that fatality risks in Tier 3 countries were 36 times higher than those in Tier 1 countries from 2018-2022. However, despite this, the number of fatalities per boarding nearly halved during this time period, as Barnett pointed out.

The research is a historical examination of flight safety, but it does not forecast the outcome of Boeing's current problems.

But Barnett indicated he's confident about the future of commercial aviation.

The Alaska Airlines incident was an emergency, but the pilots quickly landed the plane safely. This demonstrates that even when things go wrong, other components of the air-safety system usually prevent catastrophe, as stated by the speaker to CNBC Travel.

"The incident, when viewed in full, reveals more about the safety of flying than its risks," he stated.

Why avoiding Boeing is difficult

Nearly all large passenger aircraft are manufactured by the United States' century-old Boeing company and its European competitor, Airbus, despite intense competition among airlines.

It is possible to avoid flying on Boeing-manufactured aircraft, but it may not be easy. Several platforms, including Kayak and Alternative Airlines, offer the option to filter flights by aircraft, which was introduced after two Boeing 737 Max airliners crashed within a six-month period in 2018 and 2019.

Harvey stated that some individuals who prefer to fly only Airbus or avoid Boeing's 737 Max aircraft may find it easier or more difficult to achieve their goal.

"Frequent travelers may find it harder to build status if they have to switch airlines due to a significant number of Boeing aircraft in their fleet, according to her. However, for the average traveler, this isn't a problem."

Still, nothing is guaranteed.

To avoid flying on a Boeing 737 Max, I paid an additional four-figure sum for my family to fly from Singapore to the United States after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed on March 10, 2019.

The airline made minor changes to the departure time and also altered the aircraft prior to the departure date.

The new plane? A Boeing 737 Max.