An estimated 52.6 million Americans will be flying somewhere during the extended holiday period lasting from Dec. 20 to Jan. 1, according to the Automobile Club of America. But a surprisingly large share of those air travelers will be concerned about their safety, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

Overall, a majority of Americans show confidence in the U.S. air-safety system, but a near-two-thirds majority call themselves “concerned” over recent media reports about air-traffic control and aviation safety.

The national online poll was taken by 1,483 adults from Nov. 25 to Nov. 29, with a +/-2.8 percentage point margin of error.

The I&I/TIPP Poll asked two related questions, the first being: “How confident are you in the safety and reliability of the nation’s air-traffic control system?”

As a general proposition, a solid 55% of Americans say they are either “very confident” (17%) or “somewhat confident” (38%), while only 31% answered that they either “not very confident” (20%) or “not confident at all” (11%). Another 14% weren’t sure.

If you thought opinions about air travel would be universal, with no political component at all, you would be wrong.

Among Democrats, for instance, a plurality of 48% called themselves confident, while 40% said they weren’t confident. Independent and third-party voters were a bit higher, with 50% confident and 33% not confident. Republicans were most confident, at 70% vs. just 20% not confident.

Men and women differ, too: Men (65% confident, 26% not confident) and women (45% confident, 35% not confident). Women, it seems, are considerably more apprehensive about both “safety and reliability” than are men.

The second question I&I/TIPP posed about air travel was closely related to the first: “How concerned are you about recent news reports on the air-traffic control system and aviation safety?”

On this question, Americans show much greater concern.

Among those responding, 64% said they were either “very concerned” (25%) or “somewhat concerned” (38%). On the other side, only 22% said they were “not very concerned” (17%) or “not concerned at all” (5%). Once again, 14% were not sure.

These responses were much more uniform than the first question. A majority of all 36 of our demographic groups were “concerned.”

It’s a rare example of bipartisan agreement on a potentially politically hot question.

Statistically, not much separates Democrats (73% concerned, 16% not concerned), independents (60% concerned, 23% not concerned), and Republicans (62% concerned, 27% not concerned).

So what are the “news reports” that so bother people?

Start with the record number of people flying this holiday season. Americans are still getting over the COVID-19 flying drought, and taking to the air in record numbers.

Inevitably, such a large number of people flying puts many on edge. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reassured Americans that it is “safe to fly,” despite a persistent shortage of new air-traffic control trainees to staff major airport traffic towers.

Related:

“Here’s An Idea: Use The Shutdown To Privatize Air Traffic Control“
“Memo To Trump: FAA’s Failings Are Much Deeper Than DEI“

“You saw that as we were getting into the last days of the shutdown, we reduced the capacity of airlines by 10% because we saw the trend lines going in the wrong direction,” Duffy told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “We will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure the airspace is safe.”

Duffy’s remarks came after Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford last week acknowledged in a House Aviation Subcommittee hearing that the FAA has lagged in updating its safety systems, but said plans are in the works to expand air-traffic control school capacity by 20%, to eventually eliminate personnel shortages.

Meanwhile, after years of trying to revamp its aging air-traffic control technology with little success, the FAA will seek outside help.

“We realized that after 20 years of trying to upgrade the system, the FAA, they’re great at safety, they’re not great at building things,” Duffy said. “And so we’re going to bring in an outside contractor to do the work for us to help us manage this massive project.”

But now the FAA and Transportation Department face a crisis: Air-traffic controllers, the bedrock of the air-safety system, are leaving their jobs in droves, with hundreds moving to countries where pay and work conditions are better.

Case in point: Dozens of air-traffic controllers have moved to Australia recently, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Morale among U.S. air-traffic controllers has eroded, according to interviews with a dozen current and former controllers. Frustration has mounted over challenging workloads and pay that they say has lagged behind the rate of inflation.

January’s deadly midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and persistent technology outages have taken a toll.

And the recent government shutdown left them working without pay for weeks.

What to do? Along with speeding up automation, the U.S. hopes to keep dispirited air-traffic controllers on the job. Just last week, a congressional committee approved a bill to continue paying air-traffic controllers during a government shutdown.

And not all news is glum. A 2024 MIT study, for instance, found that the fatalities plunged to 1 per every 13.7 million passengers globally during 2018-2022, a “significant improvement” from 1 per 7.9 million from 2008-2017 and “a far cry from the 1 per every 350,000” from 1968-1977.

While Americans still show confidence in flight safety, they also display great concern about news suggesting all is not well with U.S. commercial air safety, as the I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.