Commercial airlines had their safest year on record in 2004, the International Air Transport Association said Monday, despite a slight rise in aircraft accidents. A total 103 aircraft were lost last year compared with 99 in 2003, and 428 people were killed in air accidents compared with 663 the previous year, IATA said in a statement.
The association, which groups 270 airline companies representing 94 percent of international air traffic, said that because of increased air traffic, the accident rate had declined by 10 percent to 0.78 per million flights.
In real terms the number of accidents increased to 103 in 2004 from 99 in 2003, while global traffic increased about 15 percent.
"2004 was the safest year ever for air transport," said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani.
He noted that the number of fatalities last year was similar to the number in 1945, when the industry carried only nine million passengers.
The association targeted a further 25 percent reduction in the accident rate by end-2006, in part through the standardisation of safety audits.