For regional airlines, turbulence may be ahead

While the Federal Aviation Administration says it holds all airlines, large and small, to the same standards, a coalition representing corporate travel managers contends that business travelers don’t believe regional carriers are as safe as larger airlines, and many don’t want to fly them.

Those were among the sometimes contradictory messages presented at a two-day National Transportation Safety Board forum that began yesterday. The board is examining the safety implications of “code sharing’’ agreements that allow major carriers to sell seats to passengers on smaller, regional carriers that operate one leg of a flight.

By working together, major and regional carriers benefit from money-saving efficiencies in flight connection times, integrated baggage handling, gate locations, and marketing.

Major carriers, ticket agents, and online ticketing websites are supposed to tell passengers before they buy a ticket that a portion of the flight will be operated by another carrier. But in practice, passengers are often unaware that the airline from which they buy a ticket isn’t the operator of the entire flight, witnesses told the board.

The issue is important for anyone who flies in different parts of the United States. Regional airlines now account for half of domestic departures and one-quarter of all passengers on domestic flights. For more than 400 communities, they provide the only scheduled service.

The last six fatal domestic airline crashes all involved regional airlines. Pilot performance has been cited as a factor in four of those.

“Regional airlines can no longer be considered the minor leagues. They are major players in the airline industry and they are here to stay,’’ said Deborah Hersman, the board chairwoman.

Continental chief executive Jeffrey Smisek told a congressional hearing in June that his airline does not have the resources to oversee safety at all of its code-sharing partners. That responsibility, he said, belongs to the FAA.

John Kausner told the safety board he was outraged by Smisek’s remarks. He said his daughter, Elly Kausner, a 24-year-old Florida law student, had no idea when she bought a ticket online from Continental Airlines to fly home to western New York that the last leg of the flight would be on an airline she had never heard of — Colgan Air. Her e-mail confirmation ended with a cheery “Thank you for flying Continental.’’

Elly Kausner, along with 48 other passengers and crew members, and one person on the ground, was killed last year when Continental connection flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. The NTSB cited errors by the flight’s two pilots.

Even if his daughter had known part of her flight was operated by Colgan, she couldn’t be expected to make an informed determination of whether a small airline she was unfamiliar with was safe, Kausner said. Continental should have ensured Colgan was employing pilots that were as competent as the pilots employed at the larger carrier, but that wasn’t the case, he said.

Instead, Continental, Colgan, and the FAA “passed the buck,’’ he said.

After the accident, FAA administrator Randy Babbitt said he would look at whether the FAA has the authority to review code-sharing agreements with regard to safety oversight by major carriers.

However, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said Monday that the agency does not plan to review the agreements. She said all carriers — large and small — are held to the same safety standards laid out in FAA regulations.