MONTREAL – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has produced figures to show that flying was safer last year.
The year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft was the second lowest in aviation history.
However, the Asia Pacific region performed below par. Its accident rate worsened to 0.86 in 2009 (compared to 0.58 in 2008) with three accidents involving carriers from the region.
The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.71.
That is equal to one accident for every 1.4 million flights.
This is a significant improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident for 1.2 million flights).
The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36 percent from the rate recorded in 2000.
In absolute numbers, 2009 saw the following results
− 2.3 billion people flew safely on 35 million flights
− 19 accidents involving western built jet aircraft compared to 22 in 2008
– 90 accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) compared to 109 in 2008
− 18 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) compared to 23 in 2008
− 685 fatalities compared to 502 in 2008
“Even in a decade during which airlines lost an average of US$5 billion per year, we still managed to improve our safety record,†said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
