An Empirical Examination of Airframe Manufacturers’ Safety Performance

Abstract

Two firms—Boeing Company and Airbus Industrie—dominate the 100-and-more-passenger-aircraft industry. The principle focus of this study is the safety posture of the two firms’ products. We first discuss the competitive nature of the industry and previous research in commercial aviation safety before presenting a statistical analysis. The article then examines the data using the least squares regression method and the logit method; it also reviews the relationship between the variables using correlation matrices. The data investigation yields statistical evidence that over the 9-year period between 1990 to 1998, there was no significant difference in safety records between the Boeing and Airbus product lines. A data analysis for the past 4 years of the same period, however, indicates that Airbus is improving its safety posture when compared to the recent safety record of Boeing products.