The ICAO Safety Report covers scheduled commercial air transport involving aircraft with a maximum take-off mass above 5,700 kg. It also tracks progress under the Global Aviation Safety Plan, which guides Member States, regional bodies and industry stakeholders in developing aviation safety strategies.
Commercial airlines carried approximately five billion passengers on 38 million flights during 2025. Both figures were higher than in 2024, while the total number of accidents declined from 95 to 85.
Toshiyuki Onuma, President of the ICAO Council, said: “These results demonstrate that aviation can and must continue to become safer even as more people fly. They reflect ICAO’s leadership of decades of collaboration among States and industry to identify risks, learn from accidents, strengthen oversight, and improve safety worldwide.”
The global accident rate also improved during the year. It fell from 2.6 accidents per million departures in 2024 to 2.2 in 2025, representing a reduction of nearly 13%. Therefore, airlines operated more flights while recording fewer accidents overall. The largest improvement concerned fatal accidents, defined as accidents in which at least one person dies.
The number of fatal accidents fell from 10 in 2024 to four in 2025. At the same time, the fatal accident rate declined by 60%, from 0.27 to 0.11 fatal accidents per million departures.
ICAO’s safety strategy focuses on reducing overall accident numbers and preventing accident types that are most likely to cause fatalities. Zero fatalities from international aviation accidents and acts of unlawful interference is one of the three aspirations included in the organisation’s Strategic Plan.
Despite the reduction in fatal accidents, the number of fatalities increased from 296 in 2024 to 387 in 2025. Similarly, the fatality rate rose from 65 to 78 deaths per billion passengers carried.
A small number of accidents accounted for a large proportion of the lives lost. In particular, one accident resulted in 260 fatalities and significantly influenced the annual total. The figures reflect a central challenge for aviation safety authorities. While the industry has reduced the frequency of accidents, rare catastrophic events can still cause substantial loss of life. Consequently, ICAO focuses its safety work on accident types that have historically caused the highest number of fatalities. The Global Aviation Safety Plan identifies them as Global High-Risk Categories of Occurrences.
Controlled Flight into Terrain, known as CFIT, occurs when a functioning aircraft unintentionally flies into terrain, water or another obstacle. In many cases, the flight crew is unaware of the immediate danger. Loss of Control in Flight, or LOC-I, occurs when pilots can no longer maintain control of an aircraft during flight. These events are relatively rare, although their consequences are frequently severe.
Mid-Air Collision, or MAC, covers accidents and near collisions between aircraft while airborne. Meanwhile, a Runway Excursion occurs when an aircraft overruns a runway or leaves its side during take-off or landing.
A Runway Incursion occurs when an aircraft, vehicle or person is incorrectly present on an active runway. Such an event creates the potential for a collision.
Together, these five high-risk categories accounted for more than half of all fatal accidents in 2025. Loss of Control in Flight required the greatest continuing attention, accounting for nearly one-third of fatal accidents within ICAO’s high-risk categories.
LOC-I accidents can develop rapidly and provide limited opportunities for recovery. Prevention therefore requires continued investment in pilot training, aircraft systems, safety management and human-performance initiatives. Controlled Flight into Terrain also remained a significant concern. Although ICAO recorded only one CFIT accident in 2025, it accounted for more than 10% of worldwide fatalities.
CFIT accidents occur infrequently but often have catastrophic consequences. As a result, the report highlights terrain-awareness technology, flight crew situational awareness and operational safeguards as continuing areas of attention.
ICAO also recorded four accidents related to Mid-Air Collision during 2025. These accounted for nearly 15% of all fatalities worldwide, making MAC one of the most lethal high-risk categories when such events occur.
The findings emphasise the role of collision-avoidance technologies, air traffic management systems and safe aircraft separation. These systems are becoming increasingly important as airspace grows busier and more complex.
Furthermore, drones and advanced air mobility vehicles are gradually entering the airspace system. Managing collision risk will therefore remain a major global safety priority as overall air traffic continues to expand.
The ICAO Safety Report also identified progress in runway safety. No runway incursion accidents involving commercial air transport were recorded during 2025. Preventing runway incursions is a central objective of ICAO’s Global Runway Safety Action Plan. The 2025 result indicates progress linked to airport procedures, technology, communications and pilot awareness. However, seven runway excursion accidents occurred during the year. One of these accidents resulted in fatal injuries.
Beyond accident data, ICAO assesses the ability of national civil aviation authorities to oversee safety. It conducts these assessments through the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme.
The programme examines whether States have appropriate legislation, regulations, inspectors and technical expertise. It also evaluates their oversight systems and State Safety Programmes. Global safety oversight performance continued to improve in 2025, with the worldwide average score reaching 69.8%. In addition, the number of States meeting ICAO’s target level of safety oversight increased. Nevertheless, the report identified continuing weaknesses in several areas. These include resolving identified safety issues and maintaining sufficient numbers of qualified technical personnel.
Other weaknesses concern the effective delivery of ongoing safety surveillance and inspections. Strengthening these functions within national civil aviation regulatory authorities remains important for accident prevention.
Juan Carlos Salazar, ICAO Secretary General, said: “Data-driven findings are effective in prompting States to intensify their focus where evidence shows the greatest risk or gaps. ICAO is fully committed to the delivery of targeted capacity building, technical assistance, and implementation support to help States achieve measurable safety improvements in these areas.”
The report provides information on the implementation of the Global Aviation Safety Plan by ICAO Member States. These findings will help authorities identify priority areas requiring additional attention.
The results may also lead to updates of national and regional aviation safety plans. ICAO said the continuing process of reporting, analysis, monitoring and action supports efforts by Member States to close the gap towards zero fatalities.
Tags:Juan Carlos Salazar, ICAO
