• A survey revealed 65% of Americans feel more anxious about flying due to recent aviation incidents. This includes the deadly collision in Washington, D.C., in January and a Delta plane flip in February.
• Delta and American Airlines have revised their revenue growth forecasts, partly due to concerns over flight safety, which were exacerbated by the crashes.
• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pledged to upgrade the air traffic control systems over the next few years using artificial intelligence to prevent future incidents.

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Increasing uncertainty over flight safety due to recent aviation incidents has begun to impact the airline industry’s bottom line. About 65% of Americans said they are more nervous about flying after recent incidents, a new survey by The Points Guy and the Harris Poll found.

In January 2025, a deadly collision above Washington, D.C., involving a U.S. Army black hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet, shocked the nation. In February, a Delta plane flipped over in Toronto upon landing.

How have recent crashes impacted airline ticket sales?

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the crashes are at least partially responsible for the decline in travel that airlines are experiencing this year, along with a drop in both corporate and consumer spending due to the economy.

“These events somewhat exacerbated the impact on us,” Bastian said in an interview with CNBC Monday, March 10. “It wasn’t just corporate and consumer, it was also a question about safety in our industry.”

Bastian did not say how much ticket sales have slowed, but the company decreased its expected revenue growth for the quarter by 50%.

American also cut its quarterly revenue outlook. It now expects little change in revenue from a year ago rather than its previous outlook of a 3% to 5% increase. 

Political debate over airline safety

Remarks by President Donald Trump and cost cutting efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have made air safety a subject of heated political debate.

The day after the Washington crash, Trump blamed efforts to improve the diversity of air control staff. Musk said current air traffic control technology is on the verge of “catastrophic failure putting air traveler safety at serious risk.”

What’s next?

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday, March 11, the Federal Aviation Administration’s system is safe. However, he also announced plans to strengthen airport air traffic control systems with the latest technology over the next four years.

Duffy said the administration will work with artificial intelligence to identify “hot spots” where close encounters between aircraft occur frequently.

“Our system is safe, right? It’s old, but it’s safe,” Duffy said. “But we do have signs to say, looking forward, we don’t want to lose lives because we have a break in the system. So it has to be upgraded.”

The International Air Transport Association data shows one accident in every one million flights over the past five years.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in January 2024, 80 crashes occurred, and 93 crashes occurred in February 2024. 

In 2025, there were a total of 63 crashes in January and 36 in February.