The year 2025 started on a concerning note for global aviation, with multiple fatal crashes reported worldwide. These incidents have reportedly caused a slump in air travel, with two airlines involved in recent accidents bearing the brunt.
CNN quoted Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, who said that the travel slump the airlines are experiencing this year is potentially caused at least in part by two recent accidents—one involving a Delta Air Lines aircraft and the other involving an American Airlines aircraft.
The aviation accidents involving two of the world’s most popular airlines have caused increased anxieties among passengers, with several of them pulling back their travel plans.
Speaking at the JPMorgan Chase investors conference, Ed Bastian said, “It caused a lot of shock among consumers.”
While Bastion did not specify the extent of the slowdown in ticket sales, his company cut its projected sales growth for the quarter in half, indicating that trouble is brewing.
According to Bastion, “there’s a whole generation of people traveling these days that didn’t realize these things can happen.”
However, that alone is not the only factor impacting demand. Delta stated that a decline in consumer confidence and economic uncertainty are also negatively impacting air travel. Nevertheless, he emphasized that the tragedy and safety concerns were “causal facts” in the decline in travel that some US airlines are reporting.
“We saw a pretty immediate stall in both corporate travel and bookings,” he noted. “Consumer confidence and certainty in air travel started to wane a little bit as questions of safety came in.”
Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, also echoed sentiments similar to Bastion’s. Isom stated that the crash significantly affected the company’s lower-than-expected revenue projections for the quarter. However, he added that the airline’s current priority is “just to look after the families of those victims.”
American Airlines also lowered its quarterly revenue projection on March 12, stating that instead of the 3% to 5% increase it had previously predicted, it now anticipates no change in sales from a year ago. He also stated, “Economic uncertainty is a big deal,” before saying that the crash significantly affected the reduced guidance.
Air Crashes Have Rocked The World
The two crashes that sent shockwaves throughout the world and led to a decline in aviation travel occurred in North America.
The first accident was a mid-air collision involving the American Airlines. In a catastrophic accident in January 2025, a commercial passenger plane of the American Airlines collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River just outside of Washington, DC. The airplane was carrying 64 passengers onboard at the time of the accident, all of whom perished.
This was the deadliest air accident in US aviation history since 2001, and one that shook the country and raised several questions about air safety protocols.
Less than a month later, in February 2025, another incident occurred when a Delta Airlines plane crashed and overturned as it approached the Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada. The incident was attributed to strong winds in Toronto. Fortunately, there were no fatalities in the accident, but about 18 people were reported to be injured.
The incident caused a massive uproar, with visuals of the accident spreading quickly on the internet and many questioning the pilots’ skills. In fact, a Houston resident who survived the accident reportedly filed a lawsuit against Delta Airlines, a move that could hurt the airliner’s business even further.
However, these weren’t the only aviation accidents reported this year. Data from the National Transportation Safety Board shows that there have been 94 aviation accidents in 2025, which may be a cause of concern. According to the stats, there were about 63 aviation accidents in January alone, and about 31 in February.
The safety board data further stated that there were 13 fatal aviation accidents this year, ten in January and three in February.
In January 2025, Air Busan Flight 391, an Airbus A321-200 traveling from Busan to Hong Kong, caught fire at Gimhae International Airport shortly before departure. All passengers survived and about seven were injured.
In February 2025, a small aircraft carrying ten passengers lost height and speed and disappeared from radar before crashing in Alaska on February 6. The Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed that there were no survivors.
That same month, at Chicago Midway Airport, a Southwest flight had to abort landing at the last moment to avoid colliding with a private jet on the runway.
That said, 2025 is not the only year witnessing aviation accidents. On December 29, 2024, in a very tragic accident, a Jeju Air (7C) Boeing 737-800 crashed into a concrete barrier at Muan Airport (MWX), South Korea, killing 179 people onboard. The accident was reportedly caused by a bird strike that led to engine malfunctioning.
In December 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines flight, en-route to Russia, crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. It was later alleged that a Russian air defense system shot down the aircraft. The aircraft was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia.
However, as it approached Grozny, it was redirected to the Aktau airport in Kazakhstan due to foggy conditions that made landing impossible. Unfortunately, the aircraft crashed just 3 kilometers from Aktau.
While all these incidents have expectedly caused a stir and made potential travellers anxious, US President Donald Trump’s scathing remarks about Air Traffic Control (ATC) couldn’t have come at a more inappropriate time.
A day after the American Airlines collision, Trump blamed efforts to increase the diversity of air traffic control staff. However, there was no proof that air traffic control was responsible for the jet’s collision with the Army helicopter or that diversity initiatives had degraded the caliber of controllers’ work.
Additionally, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency and tech billionaire Elon Musk stated that the current technology for air traffic control is about to “catastrophically fail, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.” He also implied that his company, SpaceX, possessed the necessary technology to plug the gaps in ATC’s capabilities.
Bastian claims all these arguments have contributed to travelers’ anxiety about flying. “Unfortunately, as we all know, some aspects of the crash were politicized which did not help matters in terms of restoring confidence in consumers’ minds,” he said.
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