Hi again everyone. Sorry I've been absent for a while, I was at the beach for the last week! I asked this before butI think it got lost in the shuffle so i thought I'd repost. is there any way to know whetehr you're getting one of the more dangerous Lao Airline planes (i believe it's the chinese or russian ones?) when you book or do you just have to cross your fingers. I'm thinking of possibly taking lao airlines to Cambodia...

Which route ? Vientiane to Phnom Penh is according to schedules code-share and operate by Vietnam Airlines F70.

This was mentioned before about Lao Airlines, when did they actualy 'have' any accident?
I've never heard of one, not saying they haven't but I have never heard of one and can find no record of any at all.

Their fleet is mainly Airbus A-320 and ATR-72's (French/Italian) aircraft, on the Vientiane route to Luang Prabang they are showing all ATR-72 flights.

Apologies, Siem Reap to Vientiane to Luang Prabang. I actually just received an email from them regarding this question (I heard ATR planes were safer than the old Y planes) but the reply I received was "Regarding, aircraff we use ATR plane by Y class." which slightly confuses me

Not sure if this helps, but this is the flights i'm looking at. I can't tell what all the letters mean:

Siem Reap to Vientiane flight;
QV522 REPVTE 09.40/12.20 (Wed, Fri, Sun)

Vientiane to Luang Prabang flight;
QV 101 VTELPQ 11.00/11.40 (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat)

James, again, thank you so much for your quick response. you're fabulous.

VTE = Vientiane
LPQ = Luang Prabang
REP = Siem Reap

ATR 72 is a modern turbo-prop aircraft, seats 2 x 2, usually take around 64 passengers. Widely used all over the world, Bangkok Airways use them regionaly, in the US America/Continental and others use them, they are fine.

Y = Economy / Coach class, ie it's just Economy/Coach, just the one class of service.

Seats 2 x 2 is 2 seats on each side so either a window or an aisle, the aircraft has the wing above the fuselage so you get good views.

Here's a Bangkok Airways link, top photo is an ATR 72, this is a stretched version of the ATR-42 which is also used, that one is just shorter, carries about 42 passengers.

Forget the link for the photos:

www.bangkokair.com/about/?type=fleet

James, Lao Air has had a long history of accidents and incidents, fewer in recent years. For many years, international aid workers were advised not to fly Lao. They flew old Russian and Chinese planes, had terrible maintence and their pilots had substandard training. That's a dangerous combination! While the last crash I read about was only a couple of years ago, it does appear that they have cleaned up their act. Last I heard, they still flew some old Chinese and Russian planes on some domestic routes.

The last fatal accident (8 killed) was in 2000 with one of their Chinese planes. These have nearly all been replaced with AT or Airbus. Actualy since 1990 there has been only one other crash. Thai airline has had 3 crashes since 1990 as a comparision. The scary thing about flying the Chinese planes was that the cabin filled up with what looked like smoke but was really only condensation. But in you did not know this it could scare the pants off you (I know).

Now as James said it is an okay airline to fly with and the cabin crew are very polite and helpful.

There are daily flights on the Vientiane/Luang Prabang route not just on certain days.

In assessing the safety of an airline, one needs to consider the number of accidents they have in relation to the total number of flights they have. Thai obviously has many, many more flights than Lao, so their safety ratio is much better despite more total accidents. The other issue, which is not relected in the fatality stats, is that you want to know the number of non-fatal accidents and the number of other safety incidents (in flight shutdowns, loss of cabin pressure, etc.) Unfortunately, I don't know of a website that offers that information. Lao has scored poorly on those measures in the past, but their record has improved.

I have flown it before. I recall that I had some sort of fluid, probably water, dripping on me the entire flight. Probably safe enough though.

Shade