Poll: US fliers worried more about ticket prices than Boeing crashes

Despite two fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashes in recent months, U.S. airplane passengers still say the most important factor in booking flights for personal travel is ticket price, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday.

The poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 adults across the United States, found that 57 percent of respondents selected ticket price as the most important factor they consider when buying a plane ticket. The next-highest selection was which airline they would fly on, which 14 percent cited as the most important factor, followed by 9 percent saying the number of stops on a flight was their largest determinant. 

{mosads}The poll also found that half of those surveyed were familiar with the recent crashes, which occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia and killed nearly 350 total.

While 82 percent of adults surveyed knew Boeing was the company that built the plane involved in both incidents, only 43 percent could identify the 737 Max as the aircraft model, the poll found.

Since the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March, the 737 Max was grounded across the world, including in the U.S. at the direction of the Trump administration.

But Southwest Airlines, which was operating more 737 Max jets than any other carrier, was voted the most-preferred airline, the poll shows. Twenty-one percent of respondents selected it as their choice airline, up from 19 percent in a similar poll from 2017.

However, Reuters notes, only 3 percent of adults surveyed said aircraft maker or model number was their top factor in choosing a flight.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was taken from a sample size of 2,008 respondents from April 30-May 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.