Is there somewhere to find out if airlines are any good?

Myanmar international and Thai Smile are not yet filling me with confidence…

You get ‘extras’ with Thai Smile.

Online reviews help, if they fly anywhere in the EU then they should be of a standard. There was a semi-mythical airline called Garuda I think that was the cheapest way to get to Oz from the UK when I was a backpacker, I say semi-mythical because no one I ever met actually even saw one of their planes but everyone seemed to know someone who’d flown down with them and the tales were as long as the flight, no seatbelts, no food, dodgy landings and dodgy airports etc.

Anyway, they do actually exist and they are actually pretty ropey and the EU banned them from all EU airports because of poor safety, hence my first point.

Garuda Indonesia? Far From mythical they fly to Heathrow, so very not banned! Had some issues, but a big airline now.

Seems they were only banned from 2007 to 2009 due to safety.

Google? It would give a link to tripadvisor and the 2363 reviews on there with a 4.5 out of 5 overall rating. Or the link to airlinequality.com where they get 7/10 over 25 reviews.

We’ve flown internally with Thai Smile -it’s a domestic low-cost branch of Thai Airways (which google would also tell you).

There was a semi-mythical airline called Garuda

In the late nineties in Indonesia I flew on a couple of internal flights with Garuda.The Ozzy surfers I spoke to weren’t that impressed with their safety record.

Check this out for the top 60

The mythical Garuda are even included 😯

I wouldn’t fly with Celebrity Airlines.

Famous passengers include John Denver, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hansie Cronje, Colin McRae, Randy Rhoads, Graham Hill, Ronnie Van Zant, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Otis Redding, Yuri Gagarin, Rocky Marciano, Buddy Holly and Glenn Miller.

So ranked on safety Garuda scored 58 out of 60 as this is top so biggest airlines not top 60 best. Quite poor then. But then I have flown with arlines ranked just above. With Taag when they where still blacklisted and some dogy local carries in deep africa. I have gotten old now I avoid even TAP and so.

Flew Garuda business back from singas to London last month. No complaints. Great food.

Air Peace in Nigeria, Enugu to Port Harcourt to lagos, a very sociable flight with some very happy faces in the arrival area at Lagos.

Air Peace in Nigeria, Enugu to Port Harcourt to lagos, a very sociable flight with some very happy faces in the arrival area at Lagos.

Probably because they managed to land safely…

Ah well, worry over…
With all the (huuuuge) stops and waits, it transpires that ‘good’ airlines fly at good times, and with a speed that the cheaper ones cannot match it seems.
Emirate’s out, Bangkok and Ethihad home.
Cap’n will also be pleased to know I booked POSH, although in economy.

I flew Garuda to oz in late 99s and it was like a backpacker express !

Good to see Turkmenair not on there….

Thought I was doing well. Very nicely painted planes looked well tidy.

Speaking to my mate who worked at engineering in RR

Told me RR had been trying to get the engines back in for major servicing for a few years now.

Didn’t feel so safe then .

Ukrainian airways internal flights were a bit hairy especially battering down the not smooth at all divorced ice run way in Simferopol in -28

Taag still not fun. Azal airways is like taking a Russian train. And tap is actually “ok” but Lisbon airport not great to transfer through- neither is OR tambo if you fly via SA