Airlines do not jinx themselves - or remind the public - by hinting that being aloft poses some risk. Instead, they brag about on-time performance, baggage handling, new onboard offerings, and customer service.
"It's hard to say why airlines don't boast about their safety record, because as an industry we have a great safety record," said Kenneth Byrnes, chairman of the flight department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"Working with industry, and working with the airlines, I can tell you that all major airlines, everybody I come in contact with, has a very strong safety program," Byrnes said. "Safety is definitely something airlines put a lot of time and effort into, and, you're right, they don't publicize that."
Even after Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger managed a textbook-perfect landing in the Hudson River in January 2009 after birds knocked out both engines, US Airways Group Inc. did not tout the incident in advertisements. Nor did management appear on television talk shows to boast.
"You don't want to tempt fate," said Robert Mann, aviation consultant with R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, N.Y. "These are very low-probability events, but, on the other hand, they do happen occasionally, so airlines don't tend to advertise safety."
"If you have to convince somebody that you are safe, it's already bottom of the ninth and two strikes and two outs," Mann said. "It isn't a good thing to talk about safety because it raises the issue to a level that we would prefer it not to be, either as customers and certainly as airlines."
