Is it safe flying with Lao Airline AT7 aircraft?

I caught two flights with Lao Airlines in the last month. One was delayed a couple of hours but other than that no problems and seemed perfectly safe to me. No idea what the aircraft was though sorry.

7 accidents since end of the war.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/country.php?id=RDPL

i was fine on all flights. the food is horrible though. heh.

Does anyone know what level of audited accreditation they have reached with regulators like ICAO?

There should be industry standard accreditations which allow an airline to operate in the first place, and others again which afford them higher safety status and hence the right to operate in other regions. That's certainly the case with other industries.

I'm not familiar with the airline business so would welcome some education here. It's not easy to find online.

Does anyone know what level of audited accreditation they have reached with regulators like ICAO?

There is an international recognized benchmark for aviation safety management systems that's audited by the IATA known as IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit). Most of the major airlines around the world have their IOSA accreditation. Lao Airlines however is not one of them. Here's the IOSA registry if you'd like to check it yourself/

Thanks 6Tango.

Interesting that Lao Airlines hasn't attained that benchmark for global safety management in airlines.

@6Tango, I agree that there isn't much evidence of the MA60 being a particularly risky aircraft type to travel on, but as there are very few operators and it's not made by one of the big 5 manufacturers, I would still err on the side of caution - I am by nature an anxious person and being an engineer and a person who doesn't like uncertainty, a trip on an MA60 for me would cause my heart to race for the entire time on the flight, despite the chance of a crash being very remote. I wouldn't even think about getting on an MA60 during the rainy season - the turbulence would freak me out.

Having said that the poster has mentioned the ATR72 and my original reply sums up the scenario pretty well - they are quite a safe aircraft type and as mentioned expect lots of turbulence during the rainy season (particularly since ATRs are turboprops) as well as frequent delays and cancellations but all of this is in the interests of safety of course, so you can pretty much rest assured that you'll arrive in one piece. Personally I'd much rather drive myself around Laos - rainy season or not, it's beautiful and a lot more fun and you have much more freedom to explore things by yourself.

BTW not sure if the OP has already undertaken his/her trip, but there is at least one flight daily operated between Luang Prabang and Vientiane which now uses the brand new Airbus A320 (in operation since Dec 2011). I have travelled on this aircraft between Vientiane and Kunming (return) and it was a superb experience. Currently Lao Airlines only have 2 A320s, they also operate on flights between Vientiane and Hanoi, Vientiane/Singapore, Vientiane/Guangzhou and Vientiane/Bangkok.