The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revealed in its 2025 Annual Safety Report that airport facilities contributed 16 per cent of accidents in 2025 .
IATA , however said that this is despite the fact the aviation industry demonstrated a solid year of safety performance.
The airline body noted that that this reinforces the need to fully respect global standards for runway safety areas, frangible installations within safety zones, and the effective mitigation of hazards such as runway surface contaminants, inadequate markings or lighting, and obstacles within protected areas or near runways.
According to IATA the Director General of IATA, Willie Walsh, “Airport infrastructure and runway environments play a critical role in accident outcomes. In several events, rigid obstacles near runways increased accident severity, likely turning otherwise survivable occurrences into fatal ones. All airports and regulators should continuously review runway safety areas and the structures near runways for compliance with global safety standards.”
On airlines on IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry, the report stated that the airlines had an all-accident rate of 0.98, significantly lower than the 2.55 recorded by non-IOSA carriers.
The all-accident rate of IATA member airlines was 0.72 per million flights, significantly lower than the 3.09 for non-IATA members.
All IATA member airlines capable of being IOSA-audited are on the IOSA registry.
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