According to the latest International Air Transport Association (Iata) 2020 Safety Report, there was a decrease in the total number of accidents last year, from 52 in 2019 to 38 in 2020.
The total number of fatal accidents decreased from 8 in 2019 to 5 in 2020.
The all accident rate was 1.71 accidents per million flights - which is higher than the five-year (2016-2020) average rate which is 1.38 accidents per million flights.
Iata member airlines’ accident rate however was 0.83 per million flights, which was an improvement over the five-year average rate of 0.96.
Total flight operations reduced by 53% to 22 million in 2020, while the fatality risk remained unchanged compared to the five-year average at 0.13.
Iata points out that with a fatality risk of 0.13 for air travel, on average, a person would have to travel by air every day for 461 years before experiencing an accident with at least one fatality. On average, a person would have to travel every day for 20 932 years to experience a 100% fatal accident.
“Flying is safe, although the industry did take a step back on performance in 2020. The severe reduction in flight numbers magnified the impact of each accident when we calculate rates. But numbers don’t lie, and we will not allow this to become a trend. We will have even sharper focus on safety during this period of reduced operations and as flight schedules are rebuilt when the world reopens,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Iata’s director general and CEO.
For the first time in more than 15 years there were no Loss of Control Inflight (LOC-I) accidents, which have accounted for the largest share of fatalities since 2016. “The lack of any such events in 2020 was a positive development. Nevertheless, based on the initial reports from the investigation into the tragic loss of Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 early in 2021, we must continue to learn and improve,” said De Juniac.
