HOUSTON – Is it safe to get in an airplane and fly? It’s a question that more and more Americans are looking to get answers to.
As we turned the calendar to 2025, we also turned our focus to what is happening in the skies.
RELATED: Americans’ confidence in air travel safety dips slightly after Washington plane crash: AP-NORC poll
First, let’s clear up one thing: Americans fly on airplanes. A lot.
According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 899.4 million passengers flew in the U.S. from January to November 2024. The data for December 2024 are not yet available.
However, according to federal statistics, that number is already a sizable increase from the 862.8 million passengers who flew in the U.S. during the entire 2023 calendar year.
In the first two months of 2025, the skies over the U.S. have seen a handful of aviation incidents, leaving some passengers wondering if it really is safe to fly.
On January 29, an American Airlines flight, operated by American Eagle, collided with a military helicopter while attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C. The crash left 67 people dead between the two aircraft, with no survivors.
Just a few weeks later, a Delta Air Lines flight, operated by Endeavor Airlines, flipped over during a landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. There were multiple injuries, but no reported fatalities.
MORE: A look at recent aviation disasters in North America
These are just the highlights of the aviation incidents catching headlines. However, almost daily there have been reports of incidents involving commercial flights, according to data from the FAA.
That includes flights originating or landing here in Houston.
On February 2, for example, a United Airlines flight getting ready to take off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport was forced to evacuate passengers due to an issue with one of the plane’s engines.
According to Google Trends, there has been a recent surge in searches for “Is it safe to fly?” This search term hasn’t seen a sizable spike in interest since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garnering even more attention, are those individual airplane accidents.
Over the past 48 hours, more than 2 million Americans have searched “Delta plane crash” or similar searches on Google. That’s a 1,000% increase from usual.
But flying in general is safe. It’s actually the safest method of transportation by far.
Here’s a look at how flying compares to other methods of transportation:
According to IATA, an international airline trade association, 2023 was one of the safest years for flying.
“At this level of safety, on average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident,” wrote the group in a 2023 safety report.
While this data will be updated in 2024 after the fatal crash in Washington D.C., one thing won’t change: flying is still the safest method of transportation.
