International Civil Aviation Organization analysis reveals major priorities for air transport…

International Civil Aviation Organization analysis reveals major priorities for air transport safetyFewer accidents in 2025, but more lives lost: ICAO's new Safety Report spotlights aviation's progress and its most urgent challenge

Montréal, 23 July 2026 - Airlines flew more people than ever in 2025 - nearly 5 billion passengers - with fewer accidents than the year before, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) just-released global safety data. However, the report sounds a cautionary note: despite drops in accident and fatal accident rates, total fatalities increased, highlighting the challenge of preventing extremely rare but catastrophic events as the world's appetite for travel continues to soar.

The data pertain to scheduled commercial air transport involving airplanes with maximum take-off mass (MTOM) over 5 700kg, and were published in ICAO's latest Safety Report today. The report tracks progress under ICAO's Global Aviation Safety Plan, which provides the framework for Member States, regional entities and industry stakeholders to develop strategies aimed at improving international civil aviation safety.

In 2025, commercial airlines carried approximately 5 billion passengers on 38 million flights, both higher than in 2024. At the same time, the total number of accidents fell from 95 to 85.

"These results demonstrate that aviation can and must continue to become safer even as more people fly," remarked ICAO Council President Toshiyuki Onuma. "They reflect ICAO's leadership of decades of collaboration among States and industry to identify risks, learn from accidents, strengthen oversight, and improve safety worldwide."

Fewer accidents despite more flights

One of the clearest indicators of progress is the global accident rate, which measures how many accidents occur per one million flight departures.

In 2025, the global accident rate improved from 2.6 to 2.2 accidents per million departures, a reduction of nearly 13 per cent. Put simply, airlines conducted more flights while experiencing fewer accidents overall.

The strongest safety improvement in 2025 occurred in the area of fatal accidents, in which at least one person loses their life.

The number of fatal accidents fell from 10 in 2024 to 4 in 2025, while the fatal accident rate declined by 60 per cent, from 0.27 to 0.11 fatal accidents per million departures.

This is a significant achievement because ICAO's safety strategy focuses not only on reducing accidents but also on preventing the types of accidents most likely to result in loss of life.

Zero fatalities in international aviation from accidents and acts of unlawful interference is one of the three aspirations in ICAO's Strategic Plan.

Why fatalities increased despite safety improvements

Although there were fewer fatal accidents, the total number of fatalities increased from 296 in 2024 to 387 in 2025. Similarly, the fatality rate-the number of deaths per billion passengers carried-increased from 65 to 78.

The reason is that a small number of accidents accounted for a large share of the lives lost.

A single accident can involve hundreds of passengers. In 2025, one accident alone resulted in 260 fatalities, heavily influencing the annual total.

This illustrates one of the central challenges facing modern aviation safety. The industry has become highly effective at preventing accidents, but eliminating the rare catastrophic events that can cause large numbers of fatalities remains a challenge and priority.

Priorities

ICAO concentrates its global safety efforts on accident types that have historically caused the greatest loss of life.

These are known as Global High-Risk Categories of Occurrences as identified in the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan.

They include:

• Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT): when a functioning aircraft unintentionally flies into terrain, a mountain, water, or another obstacle, often because the crew is unaware of the danger.
• Loss of Control in Flight (LOC-I): when pilots can no longer maintain control of the aircraft during flight. These events are rare but often severe.
• Mid-Air Collision (MAC): when aircraft collide or nearly collide while airborne.
• Runway Excursion (RE): when an aircraft overruns the end of a runway or veers off its side during takeoff or landing.
• Runway Incursion (RI): when an aircraft, vehicle, or person is incorrectly present on an active runway, creating the potential for collision.

Together, these five categories accounted for more than half of all fatal accidents in 2025.

The category requiring the greatest ongoing attention is Loss of Control in Flight, which accounted for nearly one-third of fatal accidents among ICAO's high-risk categories. Because these accidents often develop rapidly and leave little opportunity for recovery, preventing them requires continual investment in pilot training, aircraft systems, safety management, and human-performance initiatives.

CFIT remained a significant concern in 2025 because, although only one CFIT accident was recorded, it accounted for more than 10 per cent of all fatalities worldwide. This reinforces a longstanding pattern in aviation safety: CFIT accidents are relatively infrequent but often have catastrophic consequences when they occur. The data suggest that continued attention to terrain-awareness technology, flight crew situational awareness, and operational safeguards remains essential to further reducing fatalities.

The four MAC-related accidents in 2025 accounted for nearly 15 per cent of all fatalities worldwide-making them one of the most lethal high-risk categories when they occur. The data reinforce the importance of collision-avoidance technologies, air traffic management systems, and maintaining safe separation between aircraft in increasingly busy and complex airspace. As air traffic continues to grow and new entrants such as drones and advanced air mobility vehicles are integrated into the airspace system, managing collision risk will remain a critical global safety priority.

On a positive note, the report also highlights progress in runway safety. No runway incursion accidents involving commercial air transport were recorded in 2025. Preventing these events is a major focus of ICAO's Global Runway Safety Action Plan. The absence of such accidents in 2025 suggests that investments in airport procedures, technology, communications, and pilot awareness are producing positive results. The aviation community must continue to build on this progress, as seven accidents related to runway excursions did occur that year, one of which resulted in fatal injuries.

Strong safety systems are essential

Beyond accident statistics, ICAO also assesses how effectively national aviation authorities oversee safety.

This is measured through ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, which evaluates whether States have the laws, regulations, inspectors, technical expertise, and oversight systems and State Safety Programmes needed to ensure safe aviation operations.

The report shows that global safety oversight performance continued to improve in 2025, with the worldwide average score reaching 698.8 per cent. The number of States meeting ICAO's target level of safety oversight also increased.

However, challenges remain. The greatest weaknesses identified globally relate to:

• Resolving identified safety issues;
• Maintaining sufficient numbers of qualified technical personnel;
• Conducting effective ongoing safety surveillance and inspections.

Strengthening these areas in State civil aviation regulatory authorities is critical because strong safety oversight helps prevent accidents.

Closing the gap to zero fatalities

"Data-driven findings are effective in prompting States to intensify their focus where evidence shows the greatest risk or gaps," remarked ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar. "ICAO is fully committed to the delivery of targeted capacity building, technical assistance, and implementation support to help States achieve measurable safety improvements in these areas."

The data reported in this year's Safety Report provides insights into the implementation of the Global Aviation Safety Plan by ICAO Member States. These insights will help them to identify priority areas needing greater attention from safety authorities, potentially resulting in updates to both national and regional safety plans.

It is through this continuous cycle of reporting, analysis, monitoring, and action that ICAO and its Member States can close the gap to zero fatalities.

About ICAO
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the United Nations specialized agency that enables safe, secure and sustainable air transport for all. ICAO brings together 193 Member States to develop and adopt the Standards and Recommended Practices that serve as the global framework for international civil aviation. Through technical guidance and implementation support, ICAO leads progress towards global connectivity, with zero fatalities and net-zero carbon emissions.

Media Contact
William Raillant-Clark
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