In brief
- 2025 stats show that flying remains incredibly safe
- Millions of flights take off and land each year safely
- Billions of people fly safely every year, and you can be one of them
How safe is flying?
Statistics show that 2025 was another great year for airline safety, with millions of flights taking off and landing safely.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) represents around 350 airlines worldwide and publishes a detailed annual safety report. The latest edition (2024) examines how safe air travel really is using numbers. If you’re worried about how safe flying is, this is a great place to start.
There were some safety incidents reported in 2024, but the prevailing finding remains that air travel is extraordinarily safe. What’s more, every year the industry learns, adapts, and improves to make flying safer still.
Here’s what the data shows about how safe flying is.
Millions of flights, few accidents
In 2024, there were around 40.6 million flights worldwide. That reflects the return of global air travel after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Out of those tens of millions of flights, there were just 46 accidents. Of these, seven were fatal.
That means more than 99.99% of flights arrived safely.
To put it in another way, you would have to fly every single day for over 200,000 years before being involved in a fatal accident like those reported in 2024.
The statistics show that not only are accidents rare, they’re also studied in incredible detail to identify lessons that can be learned. Every aerospace event, no matter how small, becomes an opportunity to strengthen safety further.
Comparisons with 2023
The report makes a comparison with 2023, which was an exceptionally safe year with just one fatal accident.
It’s true that there were more incidents in 2024, but this isn’t a sign that safety is falling. Instead, it shows how unusual (statistically speaking) 2023 was.
Instead of focusing on individual years, the five-year average gives us a more realistic picture:
- Between 2020–2024, there was roughly one accident for every 810,000 flights.
- A decade ago, that figure was one accident for every 456,000 flights.
We can see that’s almost double the level of safety in just ten years.
Understanding the numbers: Fatalities and risk
In 2024, there were 244 on-board fatalities compared to 72 in 2023.
We need to move beyond the numbers to get a better understanding of risk.
Fatality risk is the measure of how likely a passenger is to be involved in a fatal accident. That means the chance of a passenger being involved in a fatal accident is a tiny fraction of one percent. (In 2024 the fatality risk was 0.06, compared with 0.03 in 2023.)
This is still well below the five-year average of 0.10.
Put simply, the chance of being involved in a fatal accident remains incredibly small.
Not all incidents and accidents are the same. Most are relatively minor, including tail strikes (when the back of the plane touches the runway during takeoff or landing) and runway excursions (when an aircraft veers slightly off the paved surface).
One of the most reassuring findings of the 2024 report is that there were no controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) accidents – historically one of the more serious categories.
Regional insights: Safety everywhere, but still some challenges
The IATA report also breaks down safety by region, helping the industry to focus on where improvements are most needed.
- North America: Accident rates improved in 2024, with zero fatalities since 2020.
- Europe: Safety remains strong, with only small increases in minor accidents.
- Asia-Pacific: Slightly higher rates than 2023, but still better than the five-year average.
- Africa: Accident rates were higher, particularly with smaller turboprop aircraft. Fatality risk remained zero.
- Middle East & North Africa: Accident rates improved, with no fatalities for several years.
- Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Reported zero accidents in 2024, an encouraging improvement.
While some regions face challenges, air travel remains safe across the world.
The role of data
Every incident or accident should be analysed and understood. These accident reports are shared, studied, and (where necessary) acted upon. There’s an area here for improvement.
Between 2018 and 2023, only around 57% of accident investigations were completed and published on time.
It’s important that the airline industry ensures accident reports are created, shared and acted on to ensure air travel remains as safe as it is today.
Key takeaways
If you’re someone who grips the armrest during takeoff or feels uneasy during turbulence, it can be difficult to separate statistics from emotions. Here are a few key takeaways to hold onto:
- Flying is safer now than ever before: Accident rates keep improving year by year.
- Most accidents are minor and rarely result in fatalities.
- Fatal accidents are extremely rare: There were just seven in 40.6 million flights in 2024.
- Every incident teaches lessons: Nothing is ignored, and everything contributes to safer skies. Operators recognise reporting is too slow and are working to fix this.
Flying is safe
The stats show what we really know: that flying is one of the safest things you can do. Billions of people fly safely every year, and you can be one of them. When you step onto a plane in 2025, you’re placing your trust in an entire system that’s built on safety.
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FAQs
Flying is still one of the safest ways to travel. Every year there are more than 40 million flights but only a handful of fatal accidents. The risk to us is extremely small. One way to think about it is the risk-per-mile. Commercial air travel is much safer than driving, riding a bike or walking.
While flying is incredibly safe, it’s true that no complex system is completely risk-free. Thankfully, flying is built on learning and has incredibly strong safety protocols in place. If you study the stats you’ll find that most reported “accidents” are actually relatively minor events (like runway excursions or tail strikes). These won’t endanger passengers. Even so, every accident is investigated to ensure that individuals, airlines and the whole system can improve safety.
It’s natural to become anxious when you see and hear about airline accidents and crashes. When you study them, you will see that news reports focus on rare events (like crashes) that can make flying feel more dangerous than it is. Incidents and accidents are rare, affecting a tiny number of the millions of safe flights. Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, look at the trends and they show that flying remains incredibly safe.