Africa had the highest aviation accident rate in the world in 2025, according to a new safety report from the International Air Transport Association, highlighting ongoing safety and infrastructure challenges across the continent’s aviation industry.
The report shows that seven accidents involving African operators were recorded in 2025, down from 11 in 2024. Despite the drop, Africa still recorded the highest accident rate globally, 7.86 accidents per million flights.
More worrying was the sharp rise in fatality risk. The report said Africa’s fatality rate jumped from zero in 2024 to 2.19 per million flights in 2025, largely due to incidents involving turboprop aircraft.
According to the report, about 71 percent of accidents involving African operators involved turboprops, aircraft commonly used for shorter regional routes. Many of the incidents were linked to runway excursions or other events where aircraft veer off the runway during landing or takeoff.
When compared with other regions, Africa’s figures remain significantly higher.
The Asia-Pacific region recorded six accidents in 2025, slightly down from seven in 2024, with a fatality risk of 0.15 per million flights. Europe reported 11 accidents, improving slightly from the previous year and maintaining zero fatality risk.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, five accidents were recorded, with fatality risk dropping from 0.37 to 0.26 per million flights. North America saw 16 accidents, two more than in 2024, with fatality risk rising modestly to 0.21.
The Middle East and North Africa recorded just one accident with no fatalities, while North Asia also reported a single non-fatal accident. The Commonwealth of Independent States recorded four accidents, all involving turboprop aircraft, with fatality risk rising to 0.69 per million flights.
Willie Walsh said airport infrastructure particularly around runways plays a major role in how severe accidents become.
“Rigid obstacles near runways increased accident severity, likely turning otherwise survivable occurrences into fatal ones,” Walsh said, urging regulators and airport authorities to regularly review runway safety zones and nearby structures.
The report also pointed to a major gap in accident investigations across Africa. Only 19 percent of accident reports were completed in line with international standards under the Chicago Convention, compared with 81 percent in the Commonwealth of Independent States and 78 percent in North America.
Walsh stressed that timely investigations are essential to improving aviation safety.
“Accident investigation helps us improve safety, but many reports are not published in a timely, complete, or accessible way,” he said, calling for stronger international cooperation to improve investigation capacity.
Globally, the aviation industry recorded 51 accidents across 38.7 million flights in 2025, slightly fewer than the 54 reported in 2024. However, fatal accidents rose to eight, resulting in 394 deaths, up from 244 fatalities the previous year.
Despite the increase, Walsh noted that aviation remains the safest form of long-distance travel.
“But every accident is one too many,” he said. “The goal for aviation remains zero accidents and zero fatalities.”
