How can I make sure I never board an airplane made by a particular manufacturer?

Question

After watching a video on how a major aircraft manufacturer builds their planes, I am considering avoiding flying on them. I usually fly between Austria and northern Germany.
If I wanted to never board certain types of aircraft on those routes, how can I do it?
I am aware of three obvious options:

Travel by rail.
Look up Wikipedia pages of airlines operating in this region and see whether or not they have any airplanes I consider unsafe. For example, according to the Wikipedia page about Eurowings, this company only has several Airbus and one Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Then I can decide whether or not I feel comfortable flying those airplanes.
When buying a ticket, look at the aircraft type (if it is specified).

The problem with the second and third approaches could be codeshare agreements when the airline operating the flight is different from the one selling the ticket. I am not sure whether or not such agreements are practiced in the region in question.

sunil · Answer

On a ticket, the flight number can be searched in Google Search and some aviation sites like flightstats.com, give the aircraft equipment model which lets you know the vendor.

user16132 · Answer

Apart from Eurowings, when it comes to short-haul routes (which Austra-Germany is), European airlines usually have either Boeing 737+Embraer or Airbus A320+Embraer or exclusively 737 or exclusively A320 fleets, but not 737+A320.
LH and Austrian have Airbus+Embraer. Ryanair is exclusively 737, Wizzair/Easyjet is exclusively A320 family.
For the "classic" airlines, code-sharing is possible only within an alliance: as LH and Austrian is within Star Alliance, the only other airlines which is using 737 is LOT. So one option is to fly with the LH group but avoid LOT flights (which can be either Embraer or 737), or fly Wizzair/Easyjet - the latter are exclusively A320.

Hilmar · Answer

How to make sure I never board an airplane made by a particular vendor?

There are only two options

Stop flying all together
Don't board if the wrong aircraft shows up at the gate. This may include forfeiting your trip and/or having to buy a same-day ticket right then and there.

Almost all flights will disclose the planned aircraft at time of booking (code share or not), so you can minimize the risk. However, it's never guaranteed, and there is always a risk of the airline swapping equipment last minute or rerouting due to flight cancellations or delays

How can I make sure I never board an airplane made by a particular manufacturer?

3 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question