The safety performance of commercial airlines showed "strong improvement in several areas", with zero fatal accidents last year and no runway or taxiway excursion accidents, for the first time in at least 15 years.

This was according to the just- released 2021 report of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), with comparison to both 2020 and to the five years 2017-2021.

The report covered IATA 290 airlines accounting for 83 percent of global air traffic.

The country's flag carriers, Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific (CEB) are IATA members.

“Safety is always our highest priority. The severe reduction in flight numbers last year compared to the 5-year average magnified the impact of each accident when we calculate rates," says IATA Director General Willie Walsh.

"Yet in the face of numerous operational challenges in 2021, the industry improved in several key safety metrics," he pointed out.

"At the same time, it is clear that we have much work ahead of us to bring all regions and types of operations up to global levels of safety performance,”

Walsh acknowledged.

Notably, the overall increase in the fatality risk in 2021 to 0.23 was due to the rise in fatal turboprop accidents.

Fatality risk measures the exposure of a passenger or crew to a catastrophic accident with no survivors.

The calculation of fatality risk does not take into account aircraft size or how many were onboard. What is measured is the percentage of fatalities among those onboard.

There was one fatal accident involving jet aircraft last year and the jet fatality risk in 2021 was 0.04 per million sectors, an improvement over the 5-year average of 0.06.

The overall fatality risk of 0.23 means that on average, a person would need to take a flight every day for 10,078 years to be involved in an accident with at least one fatality.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is the global industry standard for airline operational safety audits and a requirement for IATA membership.

It is used by numerous authorities in their regulatory safety programs.

Currently. 403 airlines are on the IOSA Registry, including 115 non-IATA Members.

The all-accident rate for airlines on the IOSA registry in 2021 was more than six times better than the rate for non-IOSA airlines (0.45 vs. 2.86).

The 2017-2021 average of IOSA airlines versus non-IOSA airlines was nearly three times as good. (0.81 vs. 2.37).

All IATA member airlines are required to maintain their IOSA registration.

“The contribution of IOSA to improving safety was demonstrated in the superb results of airlines on the registry—regardless of region of operation," Walsh maintained.

"We will continue to evolve IOSA to support even better industry safety performance,” he pledged.

In terms of jet hull loss rates by region of operator (per 1 million departures), the global average jet hull loss rate declined slightly in 2021 compared to the five-year average (2017-2021).

A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired for whatever reason including a financial decision of the owner.

All five regions, including Asia Pacific, saw improvements, or no deterioration compared to the five-year average.

The same was true for turboprop hull loss rates by region of operator (per 1 million departures).

All five regions showed improvement or no deterioration in the turboprop hull loss rate in 2021 when compared to the 5-year average.

The only regions to see increases compared to the five-year average were the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (composed of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine) and Africa.

Although sectors flown by turboprops represented just 10.99 percent of total sectors, accidents involving turboprop aircraft represented 50 percent of all accidents, 86 percent of fatal accidents and 49 percent of fatalities in 2021.

“Turboprop operations will be a focus area to identify ways and means to reduce the number of incidents related to certain aircraft types,” according to Walsh.

While airlines based in the CIS region experienced no fatal jet accidents in 2021 for the second consecutive year, there were four turboprop accidents.

Three of these resulted in 41 fatalities, accounting for more than a third of 2021 fatalities. None of the airlines involved was on the IOSA registry.

Airlines based in sub-Saharan Africa experienced four accidents in 2021, all with turboprop aircraft, three of which resulted in 18 fatalities. None of the operators was on the IOSA registry. There were no jet hull loss accidents in 2021 or 2020.

IATA defines an accident as an event where people have boarded the aircraft with the intention of flight (either flight crew or passengers).

The intention of the flight is limited to normal commercial aviation activities, specifically scheduled or charter passenger or cargo service.

Executive jet operations, training, maintenance or test flights are all excluded.

The aircraft is turbine powered and has a certificated Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) of at least 5,700KG (12,540 lbs.).

The aircraft has sustained major structural damage exceeding $1 million or 10 percent of the aircraft's hull reserve value, whichever is lower, or has been declared a hull loss.