CASA media release - Friday 27 June 2008
Australians More Confident About Air Safety – Survey
Australians are increasingly confident about the safety of aviation in Australia, a new national survey has found.
A total of 78 per cent of Australians say they are completely confident or very confident about their safety when flying between Australian capital cities – up four per cent on the same survey done three years ago.
Confidence in the safety of flights in regional Australia has also increased, with 64 per cent of people saying they are highly confident about their safety.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority commissioned the national survey of public attitudes to aviation safety, with 1526 people interviewed by telephone earlier this year. Roy Morgan Research conducted the survey.
The survey found 55 per cent of Australians believe flights between capital cities are safer than similar flights in other leading aviation nations, such as the United States. Only two per cent believe flights are less safe.
The number of people who are concerned about air safety has remained very low, at five per cent – down one per cent on the 2005 survey. Reasons for being worried about safety include psychological factors, mechanical problems with aircraft and human error.
The number of people concerned about terrorism fell from 52 per cent in 2005 to 16 per cent this year.
Fifty six per cent of the respondents say CASA is doing either a great or good job. This rating has been steadily improving since the first survey was taken in 2000, when confidence in the regulator was measured at 33 per cent. In the 2005 survey support for CASA was at 53 per cent.
Only four per cent of people say CASA is doing a poor job, another 34 per cent say the regulator is doing a reasonable job. Sixty one per cent would like CASA to supervise the major airlines “more closely” to some degree, while 29 per cent feel no change is needed.
The survey found 92 per cent of Australians have flown during their lives and about half have flown in the last 12 months. Males are more likely to have travelled recently than women and, not surprisingly, wealthier people are more likely to have flown recently.
CASA acting chief executive officer, Shane Carmody, says the increasing confidence in air safety is extremely pleasing.
“This shows that the hard work put in by the aviation industry and CASA to maintain and improve safety standards and performance is recognised and valued,” Mr Carmody says.
“However, the results are no reason for the aviation industry or CASA to be complacent. We must continue to identify and manage risks if Australia’s high safety standards are to be maintained.”
Find out more at: http://www.casa.gov.au/oar/download/ctaf/CTAFstudy.pdf
Media contact:
Peter Gibson
mobile 0419 296 446
Ref: MR7008