ISLAMABAD: In 2023, 4.2 billion people traveled by air, a 31% rise from the previous year, according to a report from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
In 2022, there were over 3.2 billion travelers, albeit this was marginally less than the 4.5 billion passengers in 2019 before to the epidemic.
According to the worldwide aviation body’s “2024 Safety Report,” which was published this week, 2023 was the safest year in the previous five in terms of safety indicators including the number of fatal accidents, overall number of fatalities, and global accident rate.
In addition, there were over 35 million commercial airline departures in 2023 as opposed to about 31 million in 2022, a 13 percent increase.
In terms of accident rate, number of fatal accidents, and overall number of fatalities, the ICAO report declares 2023 to be the “safest of the past five years.”
According to last year’s statistics, there were a few more accidents than the year before, but their rate decreased.
The overall number of accidents increased by 3.1% between 2022 and 2023. In the same time frame, there was a roughly 13% rise in the quantity of flight departures.
From 2.05 accidents per million departures in 2022 to 1.87 accidents per million departures in 2023, the global accident rate fell by 17.9 percent.
72 persons died as a result of commercial aviation accidents in 2023, down more than 50% from 160 in 2022. The fatality rate also decreased, from 50 per billion passengers in 2022 to 17 per billion passengers in 2023.
From seven fatal incidents in 2022 to just one in 2023, there was a dramatic decline in this number.
All 72 (100 percent) of the fatalities in the Asia-Pacific area in 2023 were caused by a single fatal accident.
On January 15, a privately owned Yeti Airlines ATR 72 twin-engine aircraft crashed in Nepal shortly before it was scheduled to land in the popular tourist destination of Pokhara.
The airplane had 72 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, 4 staff members, and 2 newborns. Not a single person survived.
There has been a gradual decline in the annual number of accidents between 2019 and 2023. With 114 accidents, 2019 had the greatest number ever recorded.
The following two years, 2020 and 2021, saw a sharp decline in the number of accidents; however, it’s important to remember that the Covid-19 limits caused a major drop in international aviation traffic during this period. After the pandemic limitations were removed in 2022, air travel started to rebound.
