Randomly picked Hawaiian airlines to see what mechanical failures their aircraft have had and I get this list:

- Most recent in 2023: significant problems and disruptions due to problems with the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines in their A320neo aircraft - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney_PW1000G

- Mid-air diversions: several Hawaiian Airlines flights forced to divert to different airports due to mechanical problems. One example is Flight 383 from Honolulu to Kauai and had to return to Honolulu shortly after takeoff due to unspecified issues - https://liveandletsfly.com/hawaiian-airlines-lax-diversion/

- 1994: Flight 481 experience complete hydraulic system failure en route from Maui to Honolulu - https://archives.starbulletin.com/2000/12/25/news/story3.htm...

etc.

Azul also has 40 ATRs and (naturally) Embraer. They actually do operate 2 Boeing 737-400 for cargo use.

Yea but Qantas never crashed.

QANTAS have had 14 fatal accidents over their history.

The most common claim is that they have never suffered a jet hull loss, which is technically correct as they paid over $100 million to repair 747 VH-OJH instead of letting it be written-off:

https://imgur.com/a/LucEz

I sometimes wonder if this is all just hubris or if there are genuine lessons Qantas could share with the rest of the industry.

Certainly they have a good enough maintenance program to avoid something like AS261 but everything else seems like it would involve a lot of luck.

It’s a quote from Rain Man and it was not true at the time of the movie either. Great marketing.