The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its 2022 Safety Report for global aviation, and it affirms that flying is one of the safest ways to travel.
In fact, it's safer than ever. While any accident or fatality is tragic, IATA's newly-released stats are remarkable. There were over 32 million flights in 2022 - and among those, only 5 fatal accidents.
IATA's report showed a reduction in the number of fatal accidents and the fatality risk, compared to 2021 and even to the most recent five year average (2018-2022).
Report highlights include:
- In 2022, there were five fatal accidents involving loss of life to passengers and crew. That is down from seven in 2021 and an improvement on the five year average (2018-2022) which was also seven.
- The fatal accident rate improved to 0.16 per million sectors for 2022, from 0.27 per million sectors in 2021, and also was ahead of the five year fatal accident rate of 0.20.
- The all accident rate was 1.21 per million sectors, a reduction compared to the rate of 1.26 accidents for the five years 2018-2022, but an increase compared to 1.13 accidents per million sectors in 2021.
- The already-tiny fatality risk halved - declining to 0.11 from 0.23 in 2021 and 0.13 for the five years, 2018-2022.
- IATA member airlines experienced one fatal accident in 2022, with 19 fatalities.
“Accidents are rare in aviation," said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. "There were five fatal accidents among 32.2 million flights in 2022. That tells us that flying is among the safest activities in which a person can engage.
"But even though the risk of flying is exceptionally low, it is not risk-free. Careful analysis of the trends that are emerging even at these very high levels of safety is what will make flying even safer. This year’s report, for example, tells us that we need to make some special efforts on turboprop operations in Africa and Latin America. Safety is aviation’s highest priority, and our goal is to have every flight take off and land safely regardless of region or aircraft type.”
Beginning this year, IATA is releasing its Safety Report for the first time as an online interactive resource, available to all online by clicking here.
