More aviation accidents, fewer fatalities in 2008
NEW YORK – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the aviation safety performance for 2008.
The total number of fatalities from aviation accidents dropped from 692 in 2007 to 502 in 2008. This resulted in a 56 percent improvement in the fatality rate from 0.23 fatalities per million passengers to 0.13 per million passengers.
The global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) stood at 0.81—or one accident for every 1.2 million flights. This is a slight deterioration on 2007 performance when the accident rate was 0.75—or one accident for every 1.3 million flights.
There were 109 accidents in 2008 compared to 100 in 2007. The number of fatal accidents increased from 20 in 2007 to 23 in 2008.
IATA member airlines significantly outperformed the industry in safety. With 33 accidents, IATA members drove their accident rate downwards from 0.68 in 2007 to 0.52 in 2008. That is equal to one accident for every 1.9 million flights.
“Safety is the industry’s number one priority. Today’s statistics confirm that travelling by air is one the safest things that a person can do,†said Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of IATA.
The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is the global industry standard for airline safety management.
As of 1 January 2009, IOSA is a condition of IATA membership.
Currently, 204 member airlines are among the 282 carriers on the IOSA registry (www.iata.org/registry).
A further 21 IATA member airlines are undergoing quality control checks. Airlines that have not passed the quality control process by 31 March 2009 will have their memberships terminated.
There are significant regional differences in the accident rate.
North Asia had a perfect record of zero hull losses in 2008. North America (0.58), Europe (0.42) and Asia / Pacific (0.58) all performed better than the global average.
Africa had an accident rate that was 2.6 times worse than the world average (2.12). However, this extends a year-on-year trend of significant improvements.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had the worst accident rate in the world at 6.43 (7.9 times worse than the global average).
Ian Jarrett
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