The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has released its annual report on industry safety trends for 2024.
According to ICAO’s 2025 Global Aviation Safety Report, the number of accidents for commercial flights has continued to trend upward since 2021. The yearly report covers aviation safety trends over a period of six years, from 2019 to 2024.
While 2019 saw the highest recorded number of aviation accidents around the world at 114, the number has been steadily rising each year since 2021. After a dramatic dip in the number of accidents from 2020 to 2021 – totaling 48 for each year – the number of accidents then increased to 64 in 2022, 66 in 2023, and 95 in 2024.
The report stated that the decrease seen in 2020 and 2021 could be attributed to a decrease in global flights during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also noted there has been a recovery and increase in overall passenger travel since 2019 travel numbers.
The number of fatal accidents are mixed with six reported in 2019, down to four in 2020 and 2021, then seven in 2022, just one in 2023, jumping to 10 in 2024. Individual fatalities associated with fatal accidents dramatically increased from 72 in 2023 to 296 in 2024.
Over 80% of fatalities in 2024 occurred from accidents related to loss of control inflight and bird strikes. The report also stated that around 75% of total serious injuries for the year were caused by turbulence-related accidents.
Sorting by region, North America, Central American, and the Caribbean saw the highest percentage of aviation accidents globally. However, the Asia and Pacific regions saw the highest percentage of fatal accidents, individual fatalities and serious injuries in 2024, accounting for close to 60% of fatalities and serious injuries worldwide.
“In response to existing and emerging trends, ICAO is working in partnership with the international aviation community to achieve future safety improvements, with an emphasis on improving safety performance and reducing operational safety risk through standardization, implementation support and monitoring,” the report stated. “The 2025 edition of the Safety Report – State of Global Aviation Safety, provides accident statistics and analyses with reference to the 2019 – 2024 period, as well as an update to some safety indicators in the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP).”
