IATA Calls for Stronger Integration of People, Technology, Standards to Advance Aviation Safety

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called for closer integration of people, technology and global standards to drive the next major advances in aviation safety, warning that improvements in technology must be matched by strong safety culture, effective oversight and human judgement.

IATA Director of Safety, Mark Searle, made the call at the opening of the 2026 IATA World Safety and Operations Conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, where aviation safety professionals gathered to examine emerging risks and the measures required to strengthen the resilience of the global aviation system.

Searle said the aviation industry had made significant progress in reducing fatal accident rates over the past decade, but stressed that the loss of lives in aviation accidents meant that further improvements remained necessary.

“Aviation is safer today than it was a decade ago. In that timeframe, fatal accident rates have improved from one accident per 3.5 million flights to one per 5.6 million flights,” he said.

“But 2025 still saw the loss of 394 lives in aviation accidents. Every fatality strengthens our resolve to do better. The next advance in safety will come from people, technology, and standards working together better as one resilient system.”

According to Searle, the industry must focus on the interaction between human expertise, rapidly developing technologies and internationally recognised safety standards rather than treating each element in isolation.

On the human element of aviation safety, IATA identified the transfer of operational knowledge between generations of aviation professionals as a major priority.

The association said a new generation of professionals who have grown up in an increasingly digital environment was entering the aviation workforce, making it important for the industry to preserve the experience accumulated by previous generations.

It identified structured mentoring, training and succession planning as key mechanisms for ensuring that critical operational knowledge is not lost as experienced aviation professionals leave the workforce.

IATA also stressed the importance of combining the practical knowledge and experience of veteran aviation personnel with the digital capabilities and artificial intelligence literacy of younger professionals.

Searle said the industry had spent decades building a safety culture in which aviation personnel could report mistakes, hazards and near misses without fear of punishment, allowing operators and regulators to learn from incidents before they develop into accidents.

“We have spent decades building something genuinely rare: a positive safety culture in which people report their own errors, and mistakes become opportunities for everyone to learn from,” he said.

“That culture was nurtured deliberately over many years, and it is critical that, as one generation moves on, the next takes over the mantle and builds on what was done before.”

He warned that maintaining this reporting culture would be essential to identifying risks early and preventing accidents in an increasingly complex aviation environment.

Technology was another major area highlighted by IATA, particularly as airlines, airports, regulators and other aviation organisations increasingly deploy artificial intelligence and other digital tools.

The association said new technologies should not simply be adopted because they are innovative, but should be assessed according to whether they actually strengthen safety and operational resilience.

IATA proposed three key questions for assessing new technology: whether it helps safety professionals better understand what is happening around them; whether it supports improved decision-making; and whether operations can remain safe when the technology becomes unavailable, degraded or compromised.

Searle said technology could significantly improve the industry’s ability to detect and respond to risks, but warned against excessive dependence on digital systems.

“Technology can give us critical information that helps us identify risk earlier, understand it more clearly, and take action before an incident becomes an accident,” he said. “But technology alone is never enough. The aviation system must remain resilient when technology is unavailable, degraded, or provides misleading information.”

He pointed specifically to the growing problem of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference as an example of why aviation systems need adequate redundancy and human oversight.

“The rise in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference is a reminder that technology must always be supported by redundancy, procedures, training, and human judgment,” Searle said.

The comments underline the importance of ensuring that pilots, air traffic controllers, engineers and other safety-critical personnel remain capable of operating effectively when digital systems fail or provide inaccurate information.

On global aviation standards, IATA argued that the industry does not necessarily need more rules, but stronger and more consistent implementation of the standards already in place.

The association pointed to the safety performance of airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry as evidence of the value of common global standards combined with effective oversight.

However, it said some of the industry’s most significant safety challenges were increasingly linked to inconsistent implementation and oversight rather than the absence of international standards.

“The next step change in safety will not come from writing more standards. It will come from making sure the standards we already have are understood, implemented and overseen consistently, everywhere,” Searle said.

IATA outlined three areas of action to improve the effectiveness of global safety standards.

The first is stronger implementation and oversight, with regulators and other stakeholders encouraged to direct limited resources towards areas presenting the greatest risks while ensuring that standards are applied consistently throughout the aviation system.

The second is improved State compliance with international obligations, particularly in areas such as the provision of conflict-zone risk information and accident reporting.

The third is ensuring that safety standards remain relevant by simplifying, modernising and updating requirements to reflect changes in technology, aviation operations and the regulatory environment.

IATA said the three elements – people, technology and standards – should be viewed as interconnected components of a single safety system.

Searle said weaknesses in any one of the three areas could undermine the resilience of the entire aviation system.

“People, technology, and standards must reinforce one another. That’s true whether we are addressing runway safety, GNSS interference, conflict zones or accident investigations,” he said. “When one of these pillars is weak, the resilience of the entire system is reduced.”

The IATA position places particular emphasis on ensuring that the industry’s technological transformation does not come at the expense of human expertise, operational redundancy or established safety principles.

While the improvement in the fatal accident rate from one accident per 3.5 million flights to one per 5.6 million flights over the past decade demonstrates significant progress, IATA’s message at the Istanbul conference was that the industry cannot become complacent.

The association’s approach is to build on existing safety gains by ensuring that experienced personnel pass on their knowledge, new technologies are deployed responsibly, and international standards are consistently implemented and overseen.

The objective, it said, is a more resilient global aviation system capable of identifying emerging risks earlier, responding effectively when systems fail and preventing incidents from becoming accidents.