Safer to fly than ever in 2007
Friday, 09 May 2008 11:51
The number of flight fatalities around the world fell nearly 20 per cent in 2007, according to the latest report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Over the same period there was a six per cent increase in passenger numbers, the IATA's 44th annual Safety Report reveals.
Global fatalities declined 19 per cent from 855 to 692 in 2007 out of over 2.2 billion passengers.
"Air travel is the safest mode of transportation," claims IATA director general and chief executive Giovanni Bisignani.
"In the ten years from 1998, the accident rate was reduced by almost half - from 1.34 accidents per million flights to 0.75."
North America and Europe had hull-loss rates significantly better than the global average, and the Russia and CIS region had zero accidents in 2007.
However, accidents in Indonesia pushed the Asia Pacific region accident rate to 2.76 hull losses per million flights and the Latin American accident rate was also relatively high at 1.61 hull losses per million flights.
The worst safety record is for flights in Africa, where there were 4.09 hull losses per million flights.