JOIN USCommenting on the exceptionally high safety rates in 2010, International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general and chief executive, Giovanni Bisignan said Wednesday: “Safety is the number one priority (for aviation industry). The lowest accident rate in the history of aviation shows that this commitment is bearing results. Flying is safe.”
According to him, the 2010 global accident rate - measured in the number of accidents in which the aircraft built by the two-major aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus were involved - per million flights was 0.61.
“That is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights. This is a significant improvement on the 0.71 rate recorded in 2009 (one accident for 1.4 million flights),” said a statement from IATA.
IATA statistics also show that in the last decade the airline accident rate has come down by 42 percent from the rate recorded in 2001. Meanwhile, IATA said that 2.4 billion people flew safely on 36.8 million flights during the last year.
The year 2010 recorded 17 major accidents as compared to 19 in 2009.