In 2017, there were 4.1 billion passengers travelling by air worldwide on scheduled commercial services. Tragically, these flights resulted in 50 fatalities.

Nonetheless, this rate of 12.2 fatalities per billion passengers represents the safest year ever on the record for aviation. The number of fatal accidents also decreased, to 5 from 7 in 2016, which is also the lowest on the recent record. Despite a spike in fatalities due to a number of acts of unlawful interference in 2014 and the tragic events which caused significant loss of life in 2015, there was a general trend of lower number of fatal accidents and fatalities over the past ten years.

The effective implementation (EI) of ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and Procedures for Air Navigation Services (PANS) is key to the safety, security and sustainability of flight and aviation development.

The ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) measures each of ICAO’s 192 member States’ EI; the 2018 Safety Report shows that the global EI average increased from 64.7 per cent in 2016 to 65.5 per cent in 2017, and 69.19 per cent of the States have achieved the target of 60 per cent EI, as suggested by the Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) 2017–2019 edition.

The Report also shows that in 2017, the number of Significant Safety Concerns (SSCs) was halved from 8 in 8 States in 2016 to 4 in 4 States.