SINGAPORE - Global air accident rate last year increased due to incidents in Africa, Indonesia, and to a lesser extent, Brazil.

According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the 2007 global accident rate was 0.75 hull losses for every million flights by Western-built jet aircraft, up slightly from 0.65 recorded in 2006.

Still, the number of global fatalities declined 19 per cent from 855 to 692, even as passenger numbers increased by 6 per cent to over 2.2 billion passengers in 2007.

In absolute numbers, there were 100 accidents in 2007 (57 jets, 43 turboprop planes) compared with 77 accidents in 2006 (46 jets, 31 turboprop planes), according to Iata.

Despite the slight rise in accident numbers, Giovanni Bisignani, Iata's director general and CEO, reiterated that air travel remained the safest mode of transportation. 'In the 10 years from 1998, the accident rate was reduced by almost half - from 1.34 accidents per million flights to 0.75,' he said. 'And the number of fatalities dropped significantly in 2007. That's good news. But our goal is always to do better: zero fatalities and zero accidents.'

Regional accident rates varied. Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States had zero accidents in 2007, following a disastrous year in 2006.

At 0.09 and 0.29 accidents per million flights, North America and Europe had hull-loss rates significantly better than the global average.

But a spate of accidents in Indonesia pushed the Asia-Pacific accident rate to 2.76 hull losses per million flights, while Latin American accident rate was 1.61 hull losses per million flights. However, Africa had the worst record at 4.09 hull losses per million flights.

'While this is an improvement over the previous year, it is still six times less safe to fly in Africa than the rest of the world,' Mr Bisignani said. 'Iata is working side-by-side with our African members to bring them up to IOSA (Iata Operational Safety Audit) standards. And we just announced a US$3.7 million programme to give up to 30 African carriers access to Iata's flight data analysis service for a three-year period.'

Almost half of the accidents in 2007 were linked to a technical issue; maintenance events contributed to almost 20 per cent of all occurrences last year. Almost half (48 per cent) of the year's accidents took place during landing, with the majority involving a runway excursion.

'Ground damage is a US$4 billion cost to the industry,' Mr Bisignani noted. 'The launch of the first global standards for ground safety with ISAGO (Iata Safety Audit for Ground Operations) will improve safety, cut costs and reduce redundant audits.'