Poll: Most travelers not afraid to fly after crashes

The spate of airline crashes overseas hasn't dampened the American travel appetite much, with two-thirds of the respondents to a national poll saying the disasters didn't make them "less likely" to fly.

The poll by Paragon Insights found nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents rated commercial airline travel as "very safe" and more than half (53%) said it was safer than driving in a car.

Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said the crashes haven't made them less likely to fly, although one-third (34%) said they had, according to the poll.

More generally, the poll found that 14% were "afraid" of flying in a plane, more than a third (36%) said it bothers them "slightly" and half (50%) said there weren't afraid "at all."

"Over time, Americans' views concerning the safety of airline travel has improved," said Kyle Dropp, a Paragon partner.

Paragon conducted the poll of 1,829 registered voters was conducted July 25 to 27. The results have a 2.3% margin of error.

The poll came after Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, killing 298 people aboard. A TransAsia Airways plane crashed in Taiwan on July 23 with 58 people aboard, although some survived. And an Air Algerie flight crashed in Mali on July 24 with 116 people aboard.

Tony Tyler, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, said Tuesday at a meeting of aviation industry leaders that commercial flights are safe, but that the industry will seek ways to warn airlines better about where military conflicts could threaten flights.

"This kind of incident is fortunately extremely rare," Tyler said of the Malaysia incident. "I believe that passengers traveling today can rest in confidence that this is not something that has anything above a tiny, tiny probability of happening."

Angela Gittens, director general of Airports Council International, added that the meeting with the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations, indicted the industry's unity in ensuring safety.

"Air travel remains safest form of transportation," she said.

The Paragon poll found that nearly half of voters (48%) didn't take a flight in the last year. More than half described themselves as a frequent flier (11%) or occasional flier (43%), but 46% said they rarely if ever flight.