A New Global Aviation Safety Research Center

The International Air Transport Association has inked a collaboration agreement with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to create a global aviation safety research center.

The official name of the new facility will be the Global Safety Predictive Analytics Research Center (SPARC). It will use analytics to identify potential aviation safety hazards and assess related risks, according to an IATA press release.

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The goal is to allow end users across the aviation community to work collaboratively, addressing and implementing safety measures that mitigate risks or even prevent occurrences of safety hazards.

SPARC will begin by focusing on runway safety, where the most frequent category of accidents has occurred in recent years, according to IATA.

"Safety is aviation's highest priority and all stakeholders are committed to making flying even safer,” IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement. “However, as the number of accidents declines, we need to take a system-based, data-driven, predictive approach to preventing accidents, including analyzing the more than 10,000 flights that operate safely every day.”

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The creation of SPARC, which will be located in Singapore, is particularly timely given that the Asia Pacific region is expected to see a doubling of air traffic.

By 2036, IATA expects 7.8 billion people to travel globally, up from 4.3 billion expected in 2018.

Of the 3.5 billion trips to, from or within the Asia-Pacific region in 2036, 1.5 billion will touch on China. As early as 2022, China will be the largest single aviation market. India is another emerging power-house, though it will likely take longer to mature, according to IATA.

“SPARC's predictive data analytics capabilities will help the aviation sector in Asia Pacific better anticipate, prioritize and address safety issues more effectively," Kevin Kevin Shum, Director-General of CAAS said in a statement.

Flying continues to be the safest form of long-distance travel, says IATA.

According to data released by the organization in March, some 3.8 billion travelers flew safely on 40.4 million flights in 2016. What's more, the number of total accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities all declined versus the five-year average, showing that aviation continues to become safer.