EASA publishes Annual Safety Review 2024

The 2024 Annual Safety Review (ASR) of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is now online. The 2024 Edition looks at the safety performance of the European aviation system in 2023. This, and other analyses carried out by EASA in collaboration with national aviation authorities (NAAs) and industry, is used to support the safety risk management (SRM) process that drives the decision-making reflected in the European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS). Therefore, where risks are identified, further analysis is performed and when needed, mitigation actions are included in the EPAS.

This year, there is a new chapter specifically looking at unmanned aircraft system (UAS) / drone safety performance.

In 2023, traffic reached 95 % of 2019, pre-COVID levels. A total of 2.3 billion passengers were welcomed by Europe’s airports in 2023. Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 19 % compared with the previous year.

At a global level, over recent years, there have been around 10 fatal accidents annually (between 2020-2022); in 2023 this dropped to two fatal accidents. From these two accidents, there were 77 fatalities, marking a decrease compared to 2022. It is the second-lowest fatality count in the decade, close to the record-lowest number set in 2017 (66 fatalities).

In 2023, there were 7.3 million safe flights in Europe with no fatal accidents, involving a European operator both for complex and non-complex aeroplanes. While this is clearly positive news, this result was only achieved by the entire industry focusing on safety as a priority. There is no room for complacency in aviation safety.