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African airlines mark 4th consecutive year of no fatal accidents

A woman cycles past an aircraft model of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bearing Kenya's national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) logo outside the headquarters of Kenya Airways in Nairobi on February 6, 2024. (Photo: Tony Karumba/ AFP)

By Rading Biko | Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The content has benefited from initiatives such as the Focus Africa initiative, under which the International Air Transport Association (IATA) improved aviation safety.

African airlines have recorded no fatal air travel accidents for the fourth consecutive year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported, noting aviation remains the safest mode of transport.

IATA's 2023 report Annual Safety Report says African airlines have not suffered a single passenger jet aircraft loss or fatal accident since 2020, and that the majority of the continent's carriers did not suffer any fatal accidents in 2023, whether jet or turboprop.

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"Africa's all-accident rate last year was 6.38 per million sectors flown, a significant improvement over the figure of 10.88 recorded in 2022. The five-year 2019-2023 average figure was 7.11," the report says.

Africa also marked its fifth instance since 2015 of no fatal accidents involving turboprop aircraft.

The content has benefited from initiatives such as the Focus Africa initiative, under which IATA introduced the Collaborative Aviation Safety Improvement Programme (CASIP) to enhance aviation safety. The association also urged members to increase the implementation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs).

Globally, the Aviation Safety Plan has increased the minimum SARP implementation from 60 per cent to 75 per cent and above.

"Currently, of Africa's 54 countries, only 12 met this new threshold. This indicated a need for significant improvements," IATA said.

Hull loss accidents

Although Africa saw no fatal accidents involving turboprops last year, it did suffer turboprop hull loss accidents.

The continent had a turboprop hull loss rate of 2.42 per million departures in 2023, which was, however, a major improvement over the 9.40 rate record for 2022. The 2019-2023 five-year average rate was 5.04.

The only other region to record turboprop hull losses last year was the Asia-Pacific - a rate of 0.87 per million departures - but that included the sole fatal airliner accident in the entire world in 2023, which claimed 72 lives. No region recorded any jet airliner hull losses.

this was the fifth time in the past nine years that zero such fatalities have been recorded (the first year in which the continent had experienced no fatalities in turboprops was 2015).

The Asia-Pacific region recorded a low all-accident rate of 0.78 per cent in 2023, an increase over the figure of 0.56 recorded in 2022, but still lower than the five-year average of 1.06.

Europe's 2023 rate was 0.48, down from 0.98 the previous year, and better than the five-year average of 0.77, while Latin America and the Caribbean saw a rate of 0.37 last year, a great improvement from the 4.47 reported in 2022. The five-year average was 1.91.

The Middle East and North Africa regions had a rate of 1.16 in 2023, compared to 1.30 in 2022.

North America was the other region that saw its rate increase last year, in year-on-year terms, from 0.53 to 1.14. Its five-year average was 1.21.

North Asia had an all-accident rate of zero in 2023, against the 0.45 recorded in 2022. The five-year average rate was 0.16.