My husband is uncharacteristically nervous about our flight to AC from BZE. This is because we've got two small children and he is particularly concerned we don't perish in a fiery crash rendering them orphans (true story). Anyway, my internet research has revealed that Maya Island and Tropic Air are about the same in terms of safety, with a miniscule edge to Maya Island. Most posts I ready were from 2009-2011. Anything changed recently that leads you to recommend one over the other or is it a coin toss?

I like Tropic over Maya simply for our own experiences with ontime arrivals and departures. Small plane flights are fun, an "E" ticket for sure and no extra charge for the beautiful vistas over the Caribbean and flats.

Personal preference is definitely Tropic, they offer way more professionalism, there planes usually run to schedule compared with Maya's who are rarely do in my experience. There waiting terminal is up scale in comparison and the overall service is much nicer. The planes look and "FEEL" newer and nicer so the trip in general is a nicer one on tropic.

Plus the fact that now a round trip is cheaper on Tropic swings it to them in my opinion.

I have only used Maya once. They could not fit one of our bags on our flight so we had to wait in San Pedro for the next flight to come with our bag. I totally agree with everyone, Tropic is the one to go with, never had an issue. We will be flying on Tropic on June 14th for Lobster Fest!!

Okay - Tropic it is. Thanks! Only 20 days until wheels up!

We fly Maya all the time. When we moved to the island with our 90 lb German shepherd and 9 big suitcases they only charged us price of two seats for our dog as opposed to 4 seats Tropic wanted, they flew in a plane just for our family to get from International to San Pedro and let us take our dog on board without having to put her in her crate.
our niece went back to the US yesterday and since this whole travelling overseas was new to her, I asked if someone from Maya would take her and her luggage to the US airways desk and get her checked in and they gladly did that.

I have flown Tropic as well, but find Maya's service exceptional.

absolutely no complaints with tropic.... (a friend in caye caulker was actually late arriving at the cc tropic terminal and the plane she assumed was hers, landing, was actually hers, leaving. It was the last possible flight for her to be able to make her connection back to canada.... they radioed the plane which turned around and returned to pick her up - that's service from Tropic)

and no complaints from Maya ... (was stranded in Utila with storms two years ago and couldn't get off the island on the ferry, called Maya which we had tickets for from san pedro sula to bze, they said no problem, call us when you know you're off the island. We called them on the friday to say we had caught the ferry to La ceiba and would be able to make a plane in SPSula on saturday morning. Turned out they didn't actually fly saturdays but ... they put on a plane especially for the two of us, and i'm sure that's not a one off, and we didn't pull any strings)

agreed - both safe, both amazing service, and both, amazing views. enjoy!!

I've flown both Tropic and Maya, have good experiences with both. Sometimes enjoy Maya just because they are the smaller operation.

As for whether or not your luggage will show up with you on the same plane you flew over on, no guarantee on Tropic either! Have had to wait more than a couple of times, for the rest of my luggage to show up on the next plane, and that was Tropic, not Maya.

6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Tell your husband not to worry, he will be so enchanted with the view, that it will become his chosen way to travel.

In honesty (and to Mayas credit) when I had time on my hands last fall I walked over to Maya to see if they had space on the next flight and paid cash for a nice discount...

I have flown both and have no complaints about either one. I fly Tropic primarily because they have agreements with my condo to charge my owners account.