Air Travel Safer than Ever in 2004

Airlines recorded their safest year in 2004, with 428 people killed out of the 1.8 billion passengers who flew, the International Air Transport Association has highlighted in a report about air safety.

2004 was the safest year ever for air transport,´ said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA director-general and CEO. He said the number of accidents rose to 103 from 99 in 2003 while global traffic increased 15 percent.

But the number of fatalities has been declining steadily in recent years, said IATA spokeswoman Joanna Grimble. The previous safest year was 2003, when 663 people were killed among 1.6 billion passengers flown.

That, in turn, was an improvement on the 974 killed among 1.6 billion passengers flown in 2002, Grimble said. Bisignani said IATA is pushing to reduce the accident rate even more through a system of safety audits.