American Airlines
The world’s largest airline by fleet, flying an enormous network.
American Eagle Flight 5342 — the January 2025 Potomac midair collision that killed 67 people — was sold as an American flight and operated by PSA Airlines, a wholly-owned regional subsidiary. Our per-operator rule books it under PSA, not mainline American. If you count the brand instead of the certificate, the honest answer is 2025, and we’d rather tell you that than have you find it out.
READ THE RECORD → (opens in a new window)At this level of safety, the gap between major airlines is statistically negligible. Flying American Airlines — or any major scheduled carrier — you would need to fly every day for over 25,000 years to statistically expect a fatal accident.
This figure counts years since a fatal accident, not flights — American Airlines has no sourced per-airline flight total, so it can't say how many trips sit behind the record. One airline's own history, however long or short, is a far smaller sample than the worldwide figure this site already publishes: 99.999993% of boardings end safely — 1 death per 13,700,000 boardings, worldwide, 2018–2022 (MIT / ARNOLD BARNETT, 2024).
That's the whole record, checked 2026-07-09. Reading it again tonight won't change what's in it.