6/10/98
Airlines and Airline Safety
Written and Compiled by: Jamie Ephraim, Brandi Trottier, and Mindy Woodrow. Faculty advisor: James Shokoff.
1. TWA Web Page
Description:
This is the TWA web page. It gives various kinds of information like flight information, ticket prices, frequent flyer information, airport information, products and programs offered by TWA, vacation information, and a TWA directory including press releases and a phone directory.
Evaluation:
I found this web site very helpful. Anyone can access and not get lost at this site. This site is very practical and straight to the point. The opening page breaks down the choices in five major or most popular categories such as TRANS WORLD ACCESS where you can check your fare, book and purchase your TWA ticket on-line, TRANS WORLD SPECIALS where you can sign up for fare sale e-mail notices, FREQUENT FLYER ENROLLMENT where you can enroll in their frequent flyer program and receive your identification number in seconds, FREQUENT FLYER SUMMARY where current frequent flyers can get a summary of their flights taken and miles accumulated, and FLIGHT INFORMATION where you can view actual gates and times for both departing and arriving flights.
Below these choices they have a chart that breaks down the prior six choices and shows specials that TWA are offering. The choice that I see as most valuable is the TRANS WORLD ACCESS selection. With in this choice they guide you step by step in registering with TWA and purchasing ticket. They also brief you on specials and sales so you get your moneys worth. With the guidance that this site gives you it's virtually impossible to get lost. They also have a choice to tell you what's new with TWA and a most current fare sales choice.
Description:
This web page discusses what kinds of new security are being used in order to help prevent another airline tragedy like that of TWA flight 800. It shows the carriers responsibilities, and the passenger’s responsibilities. It also shows a detailed form of an FAA Shipper’s Security Endorsement.
Evaluation:
This is a straightforward one-page web site it eliminates the small talk and tells you the security procedures of TWA. I find it really useful because it's time saving and with its one page structure it's impossible to get lost.
3. Airline Accidents: Statistics
Description:
This site gives statistics of US airline accidents from 1982-1997. It contains eleven charts showing accidents, fatalities and accident rates for the specific aviation categories. It also has a monthly updated chart, showing the most recent statistics.
Evaluation:
This is a fairly good sight containing a lot of information, in some cases too much information. It seems to me that a lot of the information given is repeated over in a number of different charts. In the list of eleven charts there is not enough background given to determine which chart you want to look at. If you are wondering about the safety of a specific airline, this is not the place to be. One other thing I did not like about this web sight is it's dull appearance. I am more likely to spend time at a sight that is appealing to the eye.
Description:
This is a web site for America West airlines. It gives lists of rates, descriptions of packages, and information on hotels. Also included commonly asked questions such as what to do when traveling with pets, what movies might be playing, and just about anything else you can think of. You can also make on line reservations.
Evaluation:
I think that this is an excellent web sight, with just about everything you need to know. One particular thing I liked about this site is the pictures. The hotel descriptions all contain a picture of the hotel. The only downfall I found about this sight, is that when making reservations, it is hard to find a connecting flight for the dates you want.
Description:
This is the U.S. Airways Airline homepage. It contains an enormous amount of information on scheduling flights, flight arrival times, frequent flyer programs, how to contact a U.S. Air representative, company information, low fares for spring, and this page also provides links to other various services offered by U.S. Air. These services include regional jet service, and metro jet reservations.
Evaluation:
I think that this is a good web site. It contains a lot of information that would be helpful to a prospective flyer. It is very easy to use the various links that it contains. For example I wanted to book a flight from Rochester, New York to Denver, Colorado for May 4, 1998. All I had to do was click on schedules. Then it brought me to a new page that asked for the departing city, arrival city and the day of departure. After I filled in all of this information it brought up a listing of flights all day on May 4, that were available. It also listed their layover stops, and if a meal and/or movie would be provided on this flight. The pages were colorful and interesting to look at. All of the links connected quickly. I found that it gives a number of ways to make a reservation, unfortunately, I could not make reservations directly over the computer. I would either have to call my travel agent, or U.S. Air directly. However, this page also offers advice that I found helpful for international travelers. It provides a link that states the required documentation that a person would need if they were planning on traveling to another country, and it also lists important U.S. Air telephone numbers in the United States, Canada, and abroad. Aside from the problem of purchasing my ticket online, I think that this page is well set up and is very useful in gaining information on a U.S. Airline flight.
Description:
This site is sponsored by AirSafe Financial. It contains information about fatal events and fatal event rates since 1970. It is broken down by regions of the world and then once you choose which region you would like to look at, it lists the airlines that serve that region. It also lists the rate, number of event, last event and the number of flights. The airlines are listed alphabetically and if they are clicked on link to another page that goes into a description about what happened to the aircraft and the number of fatalities due to each incident.
Evaluation:
I found this site to be very interesting. It used layman’s terms in describing each event and it was very easy to follow the links and not get lost. If I were looking for a listing of accidents that have occurred, this would definitely be the page that I would come to. I liked the way that they stated the sources and methods they used to compile this data. This made me feel much more at ease because I know that they could not have made it up themselves. This page also breaks down the accidents by airplane type. This is a great idea because if I were to notice that one type of plane has had more accidents than another, then I may choose to book a different flight according to the plane that was in service. There were a few things that I did not like about this page however. One was that it wasn’t very eye catching. In fact, it was really dull to look at. I think that if they would have done something different with the colors, or maybe added a picture here or there it would have been better. I also did not understand how a financial company and airline safety link together. At the top of the page there are links back to the AirSafe homepage and they offer advice on investing and answer some commonly asked questions about investment. But overall, I thought this was a very informative and interesting page to look at.