Despite a year-to-year increase in accidents, the commercial airline industry showed continuing long-term safety improvements in 2018, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says.
In safety performance data made public Thursday, IATA reported a total accident rate in 2018 of 1.35 per million flights — the equivalent of one accident in every 740,000 flights. In comparison, the 2017 rate was a record low 1.11 accidents per million flights; however, the 2018 rate represented an improvement over the previous five-year average for 2013–2017 of 1.79 accidents per million flights.
IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac conceded that 2018 was “not the extraordinary year that 2017 was.”
Nevertheless, he noted that 4.3 billion passengers flew safely in 20…
