Safest Airline

[AtoBsafely]

While we shake our heads (or fists) at the stuff happening upstairs, it appears that the front end is doing things right:

Airline Safety Ranking 2017 » JACDEC (http://www.jacdec.de/airline-safety-ranking-2017/)

[MENELAUS]

Good to see EK so high up the scale. Which rather casts doubt on it's veracity. Or did that last "incident" not count as it happened in DXB ?

[ZFT]

Let me be devils advocate here - if CX is so safe, there obviously is no fatigue issue?

Now, of course, reading the posts over these past few months, there does seem to be an issue, else why do sensible posters post problems?

That is the problem with these types of surveys. Management can use them to their advantage and the people that earn the accolades get trapped into believing the hype, or does my advancing age really dim my senses?

[Weary traveller]

I would suggest, ZFT, that the two issues are not mutually exclusive. There's no denying the fatigue issues faced by CX crew but it's indicative of the professionalism and experience inherent in the cockpit operation that they can achieve the above mentioned accolades regarding safety whilst battling the fatigue epidemic at the same time. Fatigue is simply an unnecessary hole in the Swiss cheese. Identified by crew. Ignored by middle and upper management. Those with their short and medium term bonus 'modus operandi'.

[Foxdeux]

I think CX's safety record is well deserved, I still believe the the experience and professionalism in any CX cockpit is second to none. Keep up the good work, in the end you guys make the airline, not management.

[Shep69]

Yup. You also have to look at the criteria involved in adjudicating the award.

Part of the good track record is SOP, part is the careful attention to detail and professionalism of the crews, part is the experience level of the crews and knowing what is important and what is not (as well as knowing when to take controlled rest), part is the design of the jets and the inherent safety features and warning devices present, part is the operating environment and airfields involved, part is the exposure to high workload times of flight vs. total departures and operating time, etc.

As far as personal observations mistakes (which I believe fatigued induced) have been up quite a bit over the past couple of years--then again we are extra vigilant for this because we know ahead of time it's a threat and folks who might get complacent don't because they know ahead of time someone is tired and are extra vigilant in backing them up. There is a strong survival quality to flying which can kick in when needed.

IMHO, it HAS been taking a large personal toll on the people involved (i.e. people becoming sicker for longer and more often due disrupted sleep patterns and increased time displaced on a string/fatigue). Hopefully for this aspect people realize the green book they have with their license inside says HKCAD (and not CX) and remember they have a fiduciary duty toward this (as well as to the trusting souls in the back) not to fly when unfit or overly fatigued.

At any rate, kudos to everyone involved !

[MENELAUS]

New Year Message from GMF.

The COMPANY is pleased to announce the following:

In order to assure the highest levels of quality work and productivity from our pilots, it will be our policy to keep all crews well taught through our program of SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TEACHING (S.H.I.T.).

We are trying to give our crews more S.H.I.T. than any other airline. If you feel that you do not receive your share of S.H.I.T. at work, please see your Chief Pilot. You will immediately be placed at the top of the S.H.I.T. list and our trainers are especially skilled at seeing you get all the S.H.I.T. you can handle.
Pilots who don't know S.H.I.T. will be placed in DEPARTMENTAL EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION PROGRAMS (D.E.E.P. S.H.I.T.).

Those who fail to take D.E.E.P. S.H.I.T. seriously will have to go to EDUCATIONAL ATTITUDE TRAINING (E.A.T. S.H.I.T.). Since our trainers all took S.H.I.T. before they were promoted, they don't have to do S.H.I.T. anymore, as they are all full of S.H.I.T. already. If you are full of S.H.I.T., you may be interested in applying for STC and passing on your knowledge to others. We can add your name to our BASIC UNDERSTANDING LECTURE LIST (B.U.L.L. S.H.I.T.).

For officers who are interested in pursuing a career in management, we will refer you to the department of MANAGERIAL OPERATIONAL RESEARCH EDUCATION (M.O.R.E. S.H.I.T.).

If you have further questions, please direct them to our HEAD OF TASK SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (H.O.T. S.H.I.T.) c/o your Fleet FTM.

[AQIS Boigu]

The decrease of experience amongst the new joiners has worked - congrats CX

[Gnadenburg]

The decrease of experience amongst the new joiners has worked - congrats CX

Jokes aside, I feel CX pilots are missing the the new training paradigm which sees a captain with as little as 4000 hours, or just 12 months in the company, and a 150 hr MPL crewed up together, in arguably the more demanding flying within the group- the A320 operation in China. Viewed as safe and comparatively cheap, possibly by more than a factor of half when compared to a B scale crew.

Perhaps the consequences are lost in the noise of the drudgery and stress of contract compliance or staff travel overreaction/ missed opportunity, but this paradigm seems to be stonewalling CX with KA taking over your regional network ASAP. Evidence of the acceleration or clumsy nature of the process with rumors of a notice to KA pilots that I haven't had the chance to read because it keeps disappearing?

[BlunderBus]

This airline is nothing if not lucky!! But when they slam one in .. and judging by the increasing number of very serious cockups it's coming.. the gates will open and 65 years of bad karma will descend upon them in a series of events that will take their breath away.

[tsimbeit]

PILOTS...!! Jokes aside, I feel CX/KA pilots have missed the very old (30 years) training paradigm which saw a captain with as little as 4000 hours, or just 12 months in the company, and a 150 hr pilot crewed up together, in arguably the more demanding flying within the group- the Boeing 737 KA operation (without an INS and mostly non precision approaches) in China. Viewed as safe and little later comparatively cheap, possibly by more than a factor of half, B scale when compared to a A scale crew.

The rumors that time, when introducing the TriStar (L1011), KA was taking over CX regional network ASAP.

Low cost anyone..?

[Sqwak7700]

What about all the reportable incidents that are not reported in HKG and other Business friendly regions? Doesn't that skew the figures a bit?

[Sand Man]

I guess it depends which list you look at :}

Major Airline News - AirlineRatings.com (http://www.airlineratings.com/news/630/who-are-the-worlds-safest-airlines-for-2016)

[betpump5]

And what year..that link is for 2016.

[Sand Man]

Correct Einstein, the list is for safest airline 2016 as is the originally posted list. Do you really want to have a safest airline list 6 days into 2017? If so I guess every airline would be #1.

Point I'm making is there are so many rankings out there (safest airline, best airline, best service etc) that they start becoming irrelevant to an extent. It is purely a marketing tool used by airlines to attract business.

Not righting off a 747 in Bangkok to maintain a safety record comes to mind.

The only thing we should take from these lists is that we are at or near the top and not at the other end, who really cares if we #1 or #6.

[betpump5]

That article you quoted was written 5 Jan 2016. Safest airlines 20XX is always for the previous year - as like you said everyone would be 1st a few days into the New Year.

The point being what are the safest airlines in 2017 (which can only be based on previous Year/s results), not the last few days.

Einstein

[Sand Man]

My apologies, I was looking at this article

The world's safest - and least safe - airlines revealed - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/The-worlds-safest-airlines-revealed/)

but copied the wrong link.

Lets just agree and hope that we stay in the top of the list this year, whichever list it may be.

[Average Fool]

Well done management.

It's our top priority to keep that expensive fuel safe.

Another "benefit" of the hedge.

[TWT]

http://www.pprune.org/australia-new-zealand-pacific/589140-shock-horror-airlineratings-names-world-s-safest-airline-surprise-award.html