Released on 9 March 2026, the IATA 2025 Safety Report documents a sobering paradox: fewer total accidents than in 2024, yet 394 fatalities — nearly double the five-year average of 198. For aviation safety managers, compliance leaders, and organisations preparing for IOSA, EASA TCO, or ICAO USOAP oversight, the findings of the IATA 2025 Safety Report represent far more than historical data — they define the risk landscape every aviation organisation must navigate in 2026.

Source: IATA 2025 Annual Safety Report — released 9 March 2026. The report documents a significant divergence between accident frequency and fatality outcomes.

IATA 2025 Safety Report: The Global Performance Snapshot

The IATA 2025 Safety Report presents findings across 38.7 million flight sectors operated by IATA member airlines and beyond. The all-accident rate of 1.32 accidents per million flights represents an improvement over 2024’s rate of 1.42, but sits slightly above the 2021–2025 five-year average of 1.27 — a reminder that progress, while real, is fragile.

Eight fatal accidents occurred in 2025, exceeding both 2024’s seven and the five-year average of six. But it is the fatality count — 394 lives lost on board — that defines the story of 2025 aviation safety. This figure is nearly double the five-year average of 198, and represents a 61% increase over 2024’s 244 onboard fatalities.

The IATA 2025 Safety Report also documents one genuinely encouraging achievement: zero Loss of Control — Inflight (LOC-I) accidents for only the second time in aviation history (the first being 2020). LOC-I has historically been the deadliest single accident category, and its elimination from the 2025 record reflects decades of investment in Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT), advanced flight envelope protection, and systemic safety improvements in airline operations.

The Accidents That Shaped 2025: What the IATA 2025 Safety Report Documents

No analysis of the IATA 2025 Safety Report is complete without understanding the two events that dominated its fatality statistics.

Together, these two accidents account for over 305 of the 394 fatalities documented in the IATA 2025 Safety Report. While statistically driven by two singular events, the report’s deeper message is structural: global aviation safety performance remains highly vulnerable to the consequences of individual high-impact failures, particularly when systemic safety barriers — including SMS risk assessments, operational oversight, and infrastructure safeguards — are insufficient.

Runway Safety: The Persistent Risk Profile in the IATA 2025 Safety Report

For the second consecutive year, the IATA 2025 Safety Report identifies runway excursions, tail strikes, and landing gear events as the most frequent accident categories. Runway excursions — events where an aircraft departs the runway surface during landing or takeoff — represent the single largest share of reported accidents and remain a critical focus of global aviation safety programmes.

The Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (GAPPRE) remains the primary industry framework for addressing this risk through both technical and procedural mitigations. IATA’s commitment to GAPPRE is explicitly referenced in the safety report’s action priorities for 2026.

One of the most operationally significant findings of the IATA 2025 Safety Report is that airport infrastructure contributed to 16% of all accidents in 2025. Rigid structures near runway safety areas — including lighting installations, approach aids, and fixed obstacles — were identified as factors that transformed otherwise survivable runway excursions into fatal events. The report explicitly calls on airports, national civil aviation authorities, and regulators to continuously review compliance with ICAO Annex 14 obstacle limitation surface standards and Runway End Safety Area (RESA) dimensions.

For Safety Management System operators, the infrastructure finding carries significant SMS governance implications. Airlines operating into airports with substandard runway safety infrastructure have both a regulatory and ethical obligation to conduct formal safety risk assessments before commencing or continuing operations. Hazard logs must actively capture airport infrastructure-related risks, and operational risk assessments should be refreshed when new infrastructure data emerges.

Runway excursions remain the most frequent accident category according to the IATA 2025 Safety Report, with airport infrastructure contributing to 16% of all accidents recorded.

IOSA Risk-Based Auditing: What the IATA 2025 Safety Report Means for Audit Readiness

The IATA 2025 Safety Report coincides with a landmark transformation in the IOSA audit programme. In 2025, IOSA completed its full transition to a risk-based audit methodology, with registration renewal audits now performed exclusively by IATA-trained, risk-qualified auditors. This evolution means that audit scopes are no longer standardised — they are tailored to each individual operator based on their operational profile, historical safety events, and exposure to the safety risks identified in IATA’s Safety Issue Hub (SIH).

The safety risks documented in the IATA 2025 Safety Report directly inform the IOSA risk pictures used to scope future audits. Airlines in regions or operational profiles with elevated runway excursion exposure, for instance, can expect heightened audit focus on their runway safety programmes, approach briefing standards, and go-around policy implementation. The report findings also signal increased auditor attention on:

• SMS maturity and evidence of safety performance monitoring at senior leadership level
• Human Factors programme integration with operational safety systems
• Airport infrastructure risk assessments within the operator’s route safety evaluation framework
• Flight Data Monitoring (FDM/FOQA) programme effectiveness and data-driven decision-making
• Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) processes at flight planning stage (per IOSA Standard DSP 3.2.8C)

For airlines preparing for IOSA registration renewal, IOSA audit preparation in 2026 means demonstrating not just documented compliance but operational effectiveness — traceable, auditable evidence that safety management is influencing real decisions, not sitting in a binder.

What the IATA 2025 Safety Report Means for Each Aviation Organisation Type

IATA 2025 Safety Report: 6 Actions Aviation Organisations Must Take Now

Translating IATA 2025 Safety Report findings into concrete SMS and compliance actions is the defining challenge for aviation safety leaders in 2026.

Conclusion: From IATA 2025 Safety Report Data to Operational Action

The IATA 2025 Safety Report is a diagnostic tool for the global aviation safety community. Its findings — 394 fatalities, persistent runway excursion risk, airport infrastructure vulnerabilities, and an IOSA programme now demanding SMS operational effectiveness — define the compliance and safety challenge of 2026. The data is clear. What differentiates organisations that lead on safety from those that merely comply with it is whether insights from the IATA 2025 Safety Report are translated into structured, traceable, and verifiable operational improvements.

Organisations that treat the IATA 2025 Safety Report as a reference document — rather than an action agenda — risk falling behind both regulatory expectations and the operational safety standards their passengers, crews, and stakeholders deserve.

Aero Support Group works with airlines, MROs, ground handlers, and civil aviation authorities to translate regulatory findings into structured, evidence-based improvement programmes. If the IATA 2025 Safety Report has raised questions about your SMS maturity, IOSA readiness, or compliance posture, our consultants are ready to help.

Ready to Strengthen Your Aviation Safety & Compliance Posture?

Whether you need IOSA audit preparation, SMS effectiveness review, EASA TCO compliance support, or a runway safety gap assessment — Aero Support Group delivers expert, regulator-ready solutions.

Aero Support Group (ASG) is an aviation safety, quality and compliance consultancy with offices in Dubai and Istanbul and a branch office in London. It prepares airlines, MROs, ground handlers, airports and civil aviation authorities for IOSA and ISAGO audits, EASA and UK CAA Third Country Operator (TCO) authorisation, EASA and FAA Part-145 approval, and ICAO USOAP audits.

Its work also covers Part-CAMO, Part-M and Part-147, Part-IS information security, SMS, QMS and SeMS development, gap analyses, mock audits and corrective action plans, operations manuals and MOEs, emergency response and business continuity planning, DAQCP, IFQP, JIG and IDQP inspection preparation, ACC3, RA3 and KC3 cargo security validation, CEIV Pharma, and SAF and CORSIA compliance.

ASG has completed 1,000+ projects at 500+ airports in 100+ countries. Its consultants have also served as subject matter experts, auditors and advisors for ICAO, IATA Consulting, IATA audit pools (IOSA, ISAGO, IDQP, IFQP), PRISM, ARGUS International and RSM.

• › IATA 2025 Safety Report — Official Press Release (9 March 2026)
• › IATA Annual Safety Report Executive Summary
• › IATA IOSA Risk-Based Audit Approach
• › ICAO Annex 19 — Safety Management (3rd Edition)
• › EASA European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS) 2026
• › SKYbrary — Runway Excursion
• › Air India Flight 171 — Accident Overview