JET CRASH DOESN'T DETER AIR TRAVELERS : DISCOUNT CARRIERS REPORT STEADY BOOKINGS DESPITE PASSENGER CONCERNS.

Byline: David Armstrong San Francisco Examiner 

The highly publicized crash of a ValuJet aircraft in Florida's Everglades has shaken millions, but it's not keeping Bay Area fliers out of the skies. And experts say this common-sense response is right on course.

Southwest Airlines, the discount airline that accounts for some 60 percent of the traffic out of Oakland International Airport, reports no fall-off in its volume of business, despite some customer anxieties.

``We've had just a little bit of curiosity,'' said media relations officer Beth Harbin of the Dallas-based carrier. ``We're real open in answering people's questions.''

Continuing media stories about the Florida crash of a discount airliner, Harbin said, ``keeps everybody on edge. You see it on the news every night.''

But, Harbin continues, bookings for Southwest, which has not had a fatality in 25 years of flying, have held steady.

``We're real status quo here,'' she said.

Shuttle by United, the leading discount carrier at San Francisco International Airport, is also steady as she goes, according to Joe Hopkins, media relations manager of the airline.

``It's not easy to measure,'' Hopkins said of the ValuJet crash's impact, ``but our bookings seem pretty strong.''

According to Hopkins, Shuttle by United flies four kinds of Boeing 737s, bigger planes than the DC-9 planes favored by smaller commuter airlines around the country.

The average ages of the aircraft, Hopkins says, varies from 16.5 years for 737 200s to a nearly new 3.8 years for 737 500s.

Aircraft age, however, is not the only factor - or even the main one - in airline safety, according to some experts.

``The media have been frenzying in correlating the average age of aircraft to safety,'' said Aaron Taylor, manager of market research at Avitas Aviation, a Washington, D.C., aviation consulting firm specializing in appraisals and technical inspections.

However, Taylor says, ``We don't believe the only function is age. There are any number of variables that go into aircraft safety.''

One, Taylor says, is ``cycles - the number of departures for an aircraft. For example, a 1965 automobile that's seldom driven but well-taken care of can be in much better shape than a 1990 car that's driven recklessly all the time.

``Another factor is how it's been maintained, how many times the aircraft has changed hands, and who has maintained it. The ValuJet plane (that crashed) came from Delta, and Delta is known for maintaining its aircraft very well,'' he said.

The media have also criticized the outsourcing of maintenance as a possible problem, said Taylor, but this, too, is far from a sure thing.

``Southwest outsources their maintenance,'' Taylor said, ``and they've never had a fatality.''

Nor are discount airlines necessarily less safe than established, higher-cost mainstream carriers, he says. ``There is no correlation between low cost and safety. Accidents have been randomly dispersed among large carriers and small.''

Ron Wilson, director of community affairs at San Francisco International Airport, which clocked nearly 3 million passenger departures this February alone, says the impact of accidents hits hardest ``with the airline involved.''

``But,'' Wilson said, ``people have short memories,'' and as news of a major crash fades, travelers' anxieties tend to settle down. And this, he says, is as it should be.

``Flying is extremely safe,'' he said. ``If you're traveling, there's no other safer way to do it.''

Southwest's Hanson agrees: ``The skies above the United States are the safest in the world. Flying is a lot safer than being in your car.''

Unfortunately, as Taylor concedes, ``The more airplanes in the air, the more potential for incidents'' - and more people than ever are choosing to fly.