Airbus A32x Versus Boeing 737 Safety Occurrences

Safety is a major priority for airlines. To address passengers’ perceptions of safety, airlines have randomly assigned the Boeing 737 Max to routes and times. Historically, Boeing has been considered more reliable and safer than Airbus. Hence, it is worth considering the differences in the safety occurrences of the core narrow-body single-aisle aircraft of Boeing and Airbus; the 737 and A32x families of aircraft. Utilizing the International Civil Aviation Organization safety occurrence data from 2008 to 2019, we compared these aircrafts in terms of occurrence type, occurrence category, phase of flight, injury level, and fatalities. It was found that Boeing had more accidents than expected, while Airbus had fewer (p = 0.015). In terms of fatalities, Boeing had more than expected, with Airbus fewer (p < 0.001). Looking at accidents alone, only the number of fatalities was statistically significantly different. In both cases, the increased number of fatalities for Boeing appears to be the result of two Boeing 737 Max accidents (Lion Air accident on 29 October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines accident on 10 March 2019). Looking at the reported fatal and hull loss accident rates, it was also found that the annual reduction for the Airbus A32x aircraft were better than for the Boeing 737 aircraft.