Which airlines are safest around Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia?

[MekongBritish]

Hi everyone, I'm an aviation enthusiast (maybe one-day pilot) from England stationed in Cambodia for business; I'd say I'm an advanced enthusiast: I follow the industry a lot, including the forums, safety news and the famous tv series, and must admit have become safety quite conscious/nervous/(paranoid?) about flying (I'd always choose British Airways over Ryanair, which may have reduced some of my university holiday options at some point...).

Because of work I will need to travel to Vietnam and Malaysia (and other Southeast Asian countries) frequently and all the obvious options have quite negative ratings or history compared to my EU favourites, or are too new to have any data:
Malaysian Airlines
AirAsia
Malindo Air
VietJet
I also read that some airlines don't have the IOSA certification.

So if you are safety-conscious, too, which airlines would you fly on if you had to for work?

[krismiler]

If you’re based in Cambodia then your options are a bit limited for the countries you want to travel to unless you are willing to pay more for an indirect flight.

Bangkok Airways and SilkAir would top my list. Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines wouldn’t cause me to lose much sleep either. Malaysia Airlines had two disasters in one year which totally messed up their record. The first one is yet to be explained, the second was simply wrong place at the wrong time as other airlines were flying the same route.

Which ever airline you choose is going to be safer than the long distance bus, especially the overnight ones.

[ZFT]

Hi everyone, I'm an aviation enthusiast (maybe one-day pilot) from England stationed in Cambodia for business; I'd say I'm an advanced enthusiast: I follow the industry a lot, including the forums, safety news and the famous tv series, and must admit have become safety quite conscious/nervous/(paranoid?) about flying (I'd always choose British Airways over Ryanair, which may have reduced some of my university holiday options at some point...).

Because of work I will need to travel to Vietnam and Malaysia (and other Southeast Asian countries) frequently and all the obvious options have quite negative ratings or history compared to my EU favourites, or are too new to have any data:
Malaysian Airlines
AirAsia
Malindo Air
VietJet
I also read that some airlines don't have the IOSA certification.

So if you are safety-conscious, too, which airlines would you fly on if you had to for work?

From the safety perspective, what's wrong with Ryanair?

[smiling monkey]

I also read that some airlines don't have the IOSA certification.



That's a good start. Choose the airlines which have IOSA certification. Although it's no guarantee that you won't experience an incident or accident, you'll at least know the airlines with IOSA certification have thought about safety.

[Buswinker]

Cambodia Angkor air is also largely owned and (I believe) entirely operated by Vietnam airlines so I would have minimal concerns about them

I would avoid VietJet for other reasons

Qatar airways also have a couple of handy fifty freedom flights- Hanoi to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh IIRC

[Back Pressure]

Have flown Vietnam, Thai, Malaysian, Garuda quite a few times. I would have no problem flying with them again.

Have flown Angkor and AirAsia once each, and obviously survived.

[piratepete]

I think you are asking the wrong type of question.When the weather is nice, and flying in daytime, just about any airline with a fairly modern airplane will be quite safe.Where your risk factor increases dramatically is when flying at night and/or in poor weather.In this case the better training, safety awareness and crew experience levels of bigger, national carriers will improve your chances of avoiding an accident dramatically.Not a guarantee but less risk......

[YFloyd]

Malindo are fine - many ex MAS pilots there and a great NG fleet.
Thai Lion (IOSA cert) also if you travel to BKK and onwards.

Air Asia is generally the best LCC option for PP but otherwise both TG & PG are both good via BKK. Vietnam are okay as well and provide good links.

Definitely give VietJet a miss.

[ZFT]

Malindo are fine - many ex MAS pilots there and a great NG fleet.
Thai Lion (IOSA cert) also if you travel to BKK and onwards.

Air Asia is generally the best LCC option for PP but otherwise both TG & PG are both good via BKK. Vietnam are okay as well and provide good links.

Definitely give VietJet a miss.

Whilst I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, what are you basing your advise on?

[YFloyd]

Whilst I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, what are you basing your advise on?
Which advice, ie. airline, are you specifically referring to?

[ZFT]

Which advice, ie. airline, are you specifically referring to?

All of it.

[Chocks Away]

YFloyd Malindo are fine ...
Are they really? (https://www.pprune.org/south-asia-far-east/608010-malindo-plane-overruns-runway-nepal-airport.html) Yeh right:ugh:

[YFloyd]

All of it.
I've flown with TG, PG, VN and FD (Air Asia) in and out of PP over the last 20 years between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

TG and PG are both good - though PG A320s are getting old. VN and Air Asia no problems, except for delays on the air Asia side not being uncommon.

Malindo wise - regardless of the the Nepal incident last week - I would say that they are the best of any of the Lion Group airlines. I know many pilots at all the Lion Group airlines so its based on insight as well as personal experience with all of them. MAS is obviously preferable too but Chocks would obviously not fly with them given what happened in 2014.....(along with QF, SQ, EK etc given prior incidents).

You have plenty of choice and like everyone, you'll chose based on your priorities and needs.

[sheppey]

though PG A320s are getting old
Age of the aircraft doesn't worry me. What worries me are those airlines who have a culture where loss of face over-rides flight safety. The 'real men don't go around" syndrome and there is no shortage of that in Asia judging by the huge number of incidents that don't get reported. Stable approaches are for Wimps is another cultural aspect judging by the number over-runs one reads about in the media

[on time all the time]

I have flown VN recently from LHR to HAN and back on the dreamliner. I did not see much to talk about apart from the terrible Englsih some crew members have. Now there SOP are in english which concerns me in case of emergency. What would they understand from a english captain or FO giving them an emergency briefing.
I flew from HAN to DAG and back on A321 and was HORRIFIED by their SEP. They would be laughed at here in Europe. I will open a thread about it as I was simply shocked by what I saw.
So planes can be beautiful, service good, cabin crew pretty but there is more to it and it is called safety. VN failed in that respect.
I am an ax cabin Manager, flew for 25 years , 20 on A320 and 10 on A321. We were told that a accident is a chain of events and failures. VN breaks the chain from the time PAX board.No cabin crew at L2 R2 and L3 R3 for instance on take off and landing!!!! Never seen that, ever!

[Dan Winterland]

I saw something recently relating to an Indonesian airline where the Captain's PA included the phrase "Please pray to your God for a safe flight". Trusting in religion is not a flight safety policy I subscribe to!