After Germanwings

Safety is the ultimate passenger experience

While reporting on the Germanwings flight 9525 disaster and following the announcements and early analyses from investigators and prosecutors, a recurring theme has been the level of concern from the general public about flight safety. The passenger experience, at its very core, is about getting safely from A to B. Cabin Pressure’s focus on differentiators, like premium economy, business or first class seats, and the extras – soft product like food, beverages and amenities – tends to fall by the wayside when an incident like Germanwings 9525 occurs.

The problem for passengers and the industry is that humans are incredibly bad at assessing dread risks, the ultimately high consequence but minutely low likelihood risks that include deadly aviation incidents. While railing against the 24-hour media cycle is a popular pasttime for some involved in aviation safety, and may even be justified, a more constructive response would be passenger and public education – particularly in the age where regulators and safety sources can communicate to the public more easily and directly than ever before. People want to know about aviation safety, and they want to know it from reputable, informed sources. Absent those, they will quite understandably go to the general news media.