From this morning's TORONTO STAR:

Air Canada is world's safest: Study

British expert ranks 477 air carriers in risk assessment

By Harold Levy
Toronto Star Staff Reporter

Air Canada is the safest airline in the world, an independent study has concluded. British Air safety specialist John Trevett will report at a conference this week in Brussels that Air Canada had a better safety record over a 12-year period than more than 500 airlines throughout the world.

Trevett says in an introduction to the study that he has not only looked at the airline's accident record, as is the usual practice for similar studies, but also considered factors such as management structure, fleet composition and safety regulations.

He concludes that based on its record, an Air Canada passenger has only a one in 1.3 million chance of being involved in any kind of accident. By contrast, those on Air Georgia (in the former Soviet Union) have a one in
333 chance. Air Canada scored 8.99 on ratings ranging from one to 10.

The study was commissioned by an unidentified bank concerned about the travel safety of thousands of its employees around the world.

``These results should be reassuring to Canadians,'' Trevett said in an interview yesterday. ``It looks pretty good because of its size. It's well managed and well regulated, and it enjoys very good relations with other airlines.''

Trevett said Air Canada also received the high score because it has ``a reasonably modern fleet, it operates in a safe air traffic environment, flies into safe airports with long runways and low altitudes and showed a quality of piloting and plane maintenance.''

The study should bring some comfort to Robert Milton, Air Canada's beleaguered chief executive officer. In August, Milton was forced to apologize to the public for problems caused customers by Air Canada's $92 million
merger with rival Canadian Airlines.

An Air Canada spokesperson said Milton was abroad and could not be reached for comment.

British airlines scored well in the study, with British Airways coming 9th and British Midland 16th. However, Nigeria Airways, a partner of British Airways, is one of the worst, coming 432nd out of 477.

In 1995, 11 people died when a Nigeria Airways Boeing 737 crashed on landing. It was the airline's fifth fatal accident.

The study stresses that despite the poor records of some carriers, over-all accident rates are falling. Last year, 674 people were killed in passenger air crashes, well below the average of 1,326.

Trevett, 59, a flight test engineer, says that Air Canada can take comfort from his results, ``but they shouldn't be complacent.''

``It's something you don't relax on,'' he stressed.

With files from the London Sunday Times