Yannick MALINGE

SVP - Head of Aviation Safety

Dear Aviation Colleagues,

Firstly, I wish to extend my sincerest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the 225 people who lost their lives in the tragic events involving commercial jet aircraft in 2024. This is in contrast to the remarkable year in 2023, with no fatal accidents recorded for commercial jet aircraft. As we enter 2025, the industry faces compounding challenges with global supply chain issues, geopolitical tensions, and this is particularly critical considering the increasing demand of constant traffic growth. It is a clear reminder about the importance of our relentless mission of prevention. It is our permanent quest to reach zero accidents.

The last 30 years has seen huge changes and global events that affected aviation transport. It has also been an era of overall improvement in the industry’s safety record, despite the huge growth of aircraft in service. Today, flying in a commercial jet is still one the safest forms of transport, but complacency is the enemy of safety. The key to preventing aviation accidents lies in our safety culture. This edition marks 30 years since we first produced our safety magazine. We had in mind the aim of increasing aviation safety knowledge, maintaining transparency in sharing safety information, and working together to continuously enhance safety.

The earliest versions were called “Hangar Flying”, which was first published following a series of accidents in the early 1990s, including an A330 flight test accident in 1994. It was imperative to maintain regular and recurring sharing of valuable lessons learned and experience from Airbus to its operators. This is especially important today with the large number of newcomers to the Air Transport System, and so I encourage every reader to share this publication with any aviation professionals in your networks who may not yet be aware of it.

As we commit ourselves to continuing our shared safety journey,  I also want to take this opportunity to wish all of you, your family, friends, and colleagues a safe and prosperous new year.