Global air traffic recovers amid increase of accidents

Global air transport showed signs of recovery in 2010, despite an increase in accidents involving scheduled commercial flights last year, according to a report issued on Wednesday.The number of scheduled commercial flights grew 4.5 percent to a new record of more than 30.5 million departures last year, said the "State of Global Aviation Safety - 2011", an annual snapshot of global aviation safety performance by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).It predicted by 2030, the number of scheduled commercial flights is expected to reach more than 52 million annually.Meanwhile, the number of accidents involving commercial flights increased to 121 in 2010, compared to 113 in 2009, and the number of fatalities is 707, compared to 670 in 2009, according to the report."This resulted in an accident rate of 4.0 per million departures, a marginal increase compared to the accident rate of 3.9 per million departures in 2009," the document said.It said that runway safety accidents represent 59 percent of all accidents, accounting for 29 percent of all fatal accidents and 19 percent of all related fatalities reported between 2006 and 2010."More collaborative efforts among international air transport stakeholders are needed to further improve safety in light of the sustained growth of the sector," it added.According to the report, among the 15 airports which had experienced growth in 2010, the largest increases were at Chicago (6.3 percent, Beijing (5.6 percent), Detroit (4.9 percent) and Charlotte (4.3 percent).Furthermore, Denver and Beijing are the only airports with increases in departures between 2008 and 2010, whereas Houston and Paris each experienced a 9 percent decrease during this timeframe.Raymond Benjamin, the ICAO secretary general, said while safety information is readily available from a number of sources, this innovative report presents a compelling and holistic plan for the ICAO and the industry to consistently improve aviation safety, the number one objective."Air transport remains our safest form of transportation, and through our collective efforts, we have entered the safest period in global aviation history. But any accident is one too many, so as aviation continues to grow worldwide, we will need to do more to maintain this impressive record," he emphasized.A specialized agency of the United Nations, the Montreal-based ICAO was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world.It sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, efficiency and regularity, as well as for aviation environmental protection.The organization serves as the forum for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 190 members.