While many fear flying, they may not realize that they are more likely to die driving to the airport than flying across the country.

Every year there are more than 30,000 car accidents that cause death, while in the past ten years there have only been 153 deaths while on an American plane.  With today’s technological advances, airplanes , especially those run by major airlines, are safer than ever with a record low of fatalities.

In the down economy it may seem impossible to have improved flight safety, but airlines have done just that.  How did they do this?  In a number of ways,  including financial moves such as cutting meals and adding extra fees for luggage in order to keep funding for safety a top priority.

Also, engineers have learned from their mistakes and designed safer planes after investigations of crashes. Second, with more technology there is more data. Computers can pick up trends of when or under what conditions flights are unsuccessful and changes can be made to account for this. Third, airlines must pass safety regulations. The International Air Transportation Association must approve of each airline’s maintenance and safety features.  Fourth, workers and crews are more experienced now than ever before.

All major crashes in the past ten years have been with regional airlines.  A regional airline is a separate company flying a smaller plane under a major airline brand.  The most recent one of these was Continental Connection Flight 3407 en route from Newark to Buffalo, which  killed 49 people.

While flying has become safer in America, that is not the case for across the globe. Russia still has a very risky fatality rate with a crash the past year killing several leading hockey players.  Another unsafe area for flight is Africa. It only accounts for three percent of the world’s flight traffic, but has 14 percent of the deaths.

Although people may complain about the extra money they have to fork over for luggage, it is well worth the guarantee of a safe trip.