Many people don't know, but theres been a quiet war going on for over a decade now involving low cost air carriers, & the traditional legacy air carriers. Low cost carriers include carriers like Southwest, Spirit, Airtran, Allegiant, & Frontier. On the other side are legacy carrier such as American, United, Delta, Northwest. The legacies are all carriers thats been establish for at least 50 years. The question is which group is safer?
Well they are both safe! While its true that low cost carriers operate on a strategy of lower cost operations. This means that they may not pay their employees an industry standard salary, or same health benefits,& retirement.
However, employees at low cost carriers tend to be more happy at their job. The legacy carriers have the advantage of more experience dealing with maintenance, or pilot training. The legacy carriers tend to pay better, but their employees are not as happy. But, how does this affect safety? Theres no clear data that point to one group being less safe then the other. I think its more important to look at the individual carriers safety record. Each group have unique challenges. For example, if a low cost carrier is having difficult fiscal problems it puts them on a lot of pressure to cut additional cost such as cutting corners. If you are a low cost carrier, theres only so much wriggle room involving cutting your cost. Some airlines get it right & maintain a good safety record such as Southwest. So you can't judge a book by its cover. The bottom line is you must do your homework when checking the safety record of an air carrier.   

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