The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has announced that the safety performance of the world’s commercial airline industry improved strongly in several areas last year, in comparison to 2020. Iata is the representative body for the global airline industry and it released its aviation safety statistics for 2021 on Wednesday.
The total number of accidents, the all-accident rate and the number of fatalities last year were all lower than in 2020. Iata-member airlines, who must be Iata Operational Safety Audit- (Iosa-) certified, and non-Iata airlines that had undergone Iosa certification, did not suffer a single fatal accident last year. There are now 403 airlines on the Iosa registry, of which 115 are not members of Iata. And, for the first time in 15 years, there were no runway or taxiway excursion accidents.
“Safety is always our highest priority,” stressed Iata director-general Willie Walsh. “The severe reduction in flight numbers last year compared to the 5-year average magnified the impact of each accident when we calculate rates. Yet in the face of numerous operational challenges in 2021, the industry improved in several key safety metrics. At the same time, it is clear that we have much work ahead of us to bring all regions and types of operations up to global levels of safety performance.”
The global all-accident rate last year was 1.01, meaning that there was one accident for every 0.99-million flights. The rate for 2020 was 1.58, and the five-year (2017 to 2021) average rate was 1.23. For Iata members, the accident rate last year was 0.44 (or one accident every 2.27-million flights), as against 0.77 in 2020 and a five-year average figure of 0.72.
Last year saw seven fatal accidents, one involving a jet and six involving turboprop airliners, whereas 2020 had recorded five fatal accidents and the five-year average figure was 7.4. The total number of fatalities in 2021 was 121, whereas 2020 had recorded more – 132. Jet hull losses, per million flights, had been 0.13 (or one per 7.7-million flights) as against 0.16 in 2020 and a five-year average of 0.15. Turboprop hull losses were, as always, higher, at 1.77 (or one every 0.56-million flights) in 2021, which was actually an increase over the 2020 figure of 1.59 and the five-year average figure of 1.22. There were 25.7-million commercial airline flights last year, up from 22.2-million in 2020.
Africa suffered no jet hull losses last year, keeping up the perfect record of 2020. Over the five years from 2017 to 2021, the average jet hull loss rate for the continent had been 0.28. Other regions which recorded zero jet hull losses last year were the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and North Asia. North America suffered a jet hull loss rate of 0.14, Europe a rate of 0.27 and the Asia-Pacific figure was 0.33.
Africa did, however, suffer a turboprop hull loss rate of 5.59 in 2021, although this was down on the figure of 9.77 for 2020. The CIS recorded a rate of 42.53, a huge increase over the figure of zero losses during 2020. All the other regions recorded no turboprop hull losses last year. The figure for Africa was the result of four accidents, three of them fatal (claiming 18 lives). None of the operators involved in these accidents were Iosa-certified.