The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations agency for international air navigation, has published a five-year safety report on air accidents and incidents.
The ICAO report reviewed air accidents and incidents that occurred between 2019 and 2023.
The report reveals that 2023 was the safest year in terms of fatal accidents in the past five years. The international aviation body said that only one fatal accident occurred worldwide in 2023, killing 72 people.
Meanwhile, air passenger numbers continued to recover after the coronavirus pandemic, with passenger traffic increasing by 1 billion in one year.
The report noted that between 2019 and 2023, the number of accidents per year has been on a downward trend.
“The highest number recorded in this period was in 2019, with 114 accidents. The number of accidents decreased significantly in both 2020 and 2021; however, it should be noted that during this time there was a significant decrease in passenger and flight traffic due to measures taken by governments aimed at minimizing the spread of COVID-19.
“In 2022, with the lifting of pandemic restrictions, air transport began its road to recovery. In 2023, passenger and flight traffic continued to increase, while the number of accidents only increased slightly and the number of fatal accidents decreased significantly.
“The number of fatalities associated with the aforementioned fatal accidents decreased from 160 in 2022 to 72 in 2023. The year 2023 recorded the lowest number of fatalities in the last five years,” he said.
According to ICAO data, global passenger traffic continued to increase in 2023, with around 4.2 billion passengers carried worldwide, compared to 3.2 billion passengers in 2022.
Although still slightly below pre-pandemic levels (2019), with 4.5 billion passengers transported worldwide, passenger traffic in 2023 increased by 30% compared to 2022.
The number of flight departures on scheduled commercial operations continued to increase by around 13%, with more than 35 million departures in 2023, compared to around 31 million in 2022.
