Is it Still Safe to Fly?

The safety of air travel has been a topic of increasing focus, especially in light of recent events that have raised questions about the aviation industry's resilience. However, the data from the past decade paints a reassuring picture of Australian aviation, particularly when it comes to the commercial sector.

Over the last 10 years, the fatal accident rate in Australian commercial air travel has continued to slowly decrease, although over the last 4 years there has been an increase (from 14 to 20) in GA fatalities, corresponding to the time period coming out of COVID-19. This is to be expected as there was overall much less air traffic during the COVID-19 period due to travel restrictions, in contrast to the higher levels of air traffic we are experiencing again now that these restrictions have been removed.

Despite the increase over the last four years, the overall number of fatal accidents in GA over the last 10 years is still trending down. These trends are a testament to the collective ongoing efforts of the Australian aviation community to continually improve the industry's safety.

While there are some fluctuations, the data shows that flying is still one of the safest modes of transportation, with commercial airlines maintaining an impressively low rate of fatal accidents.

Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau, National Aviation Occurrence Database 2025.

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