40m Safe Flights in 2016

The International Air Transport Association says 2016 saw a mammoth 40 million safe flights, but urged aviation stakeholders to reinforce their commitment to safety.

Speaking at the IATA Safety and Flight Operations Conference in Seoul, South Korea, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general, said, “Safety is the top priority for all involved in aviation—and aviation is the safest form of long-distance travel. Last year, there were over 40 million safe flights,” News24.com reported.

“That’s an achievement that we can all be proud of. And it was made possible by a framework that incorporates respect for global standards, cooperation and the value of data.”

However, de Juniac identified air accident investigations as a key area where greater cooperation on global standards is needed, saying an analysis of 1,000 air accidents shows only 300 of them had accident reports available.

“Global standards exist, but they are not being applied universally. The investigation process is one of our most important learning tools when building global standards,” he said.

“To learn from an accident, we need reports that are complete, accessible and timely. We also need states to fully respect the standards and processes enshrined in global agreements for participation in the investigation by all specified parties.”  

De Juniac also called for increased dialogue between regulators and industry to ensure that industry experience and know-how is incorporated into new regulations and standards.

“While the industry had a common interest, there was far too little cooperative consultation,” he said, referring to the US and UK ban on electronic devices in March 2017.