More than one in five airline accidents took place in Africa in 2024 — 10 out of 46 worldwide, according to the annual safety performance report issued by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) last week.
The report deals with airline operations involving scheduled flights.
Africa had the highest all-accident rate of the regions in the world in 2024 at 10.59 — up from 8.36 in 2023 and even exceeding the continent’s five-year average of 8.46. The all-accident rate is measured per million sectors, a sector being a flight from take-off to the next touch down.
Airline accidents in Africa are mostly related to runway excursions (an inappropriate exit from the runway) followed by issues with landing gear, thus underscoring the importance of take-off and landing safety measures.
For African-based airlines it was the second consecutive year that no passengers or crew members were killed in accidents. Forty percent of all accidents involving African-based airlines involved turboprop aircraft.
Accident investigation is a state’s obligation and a vital tool for improving global aviation safety, yet, at 20%, the completion rate of accident investigations in Africa is the lowest of all regions in the world. That is why IATA continues its efforts to address key safety challenges through the collaborative aviation safety improvement programme (Casip) of the IATA Focus Africa initiative.
Globally, there were seven fatal accidents in 2024 out of 40.6- million flights. That is higher than the single fatal accident recorded in 2023 and the five-year average of five fatal accidents. Airlines on the registry of the IATA operational safety audit (IOSA) had a significantly lower accident rate than non-IOSA carriers.
Though accidents and incidents related to conflict zones are considered security-related events and are not included in IATA’s safety report, the report nevertheless raises conflict zone risks as a top concern for aviation safety, along with growing incidents of global navigation satellite system interference.
Both concerns require urgent co-ordination, according to IATA. Data from the IATA incident data exchange highlights a sharp increase in global navigation satellite system-related interference, which can mislead aircraft navigation systems, though there are several backup systems in place to support aviation safety even when these systems are affected.
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