GENEVA, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Monday that the year 2004 was the safest year ever for air transport.

    "Over 1.8 billion people traveled safely in 2004. Tragically, however, 428 people lost their lives in commercial aircraft accidents. To put that into perspective, that is a similar number to 1945 when the industry carried only 9 million passengers," IATADirector General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement.

    In 2004, the industry-wide hull loss rate declined by 10 percent to 0.78 hull losses per million sectors flown, according to the statement.

    "Air transport is the safest form of transport but every accident is one too many. We are fully committed to further improvements," said Bisignani.

    "Despite the 35 billion US dollars in accumulated losses since 2001, the industry continues to invest in our number one priority with fantastic results," he added.

    He announced that IATA has an aggressive program to lead the industry to even safer levels, which includes a commitment to reduce the accident rate by a further 25 percent by 2006.

    "A pillar of our approach to aviation safety is the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). This is the industry's first global standard for safety audit and it will become a standard forIATA membership," said Bisignani. Enditem