Despite the Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia, commercial airlines encountered fewer accidents, says a Dutch firm.

Air travel was safer in 2019 as the number of people killed in large commercial plane crashes fell by more than 50 percent, despite a high-profile Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia in March, a Dutch consulting company said on Wednesday.

Aviation consulting firm To70 said there were 86 accidents involving large commercial planes - including eight fatal incidents - resulting in 257 fatalities last year. In 2018, there were 160 accidents, including 13 fatal ones, resulting in 534 deaths, the firm said.

To70 said the fatal accident rate for large aircraft in commercial passenger air transport was just 0.18 fatal accident per million flights in 2019, or an average of one fatal accident every 5.58 million flights, a significant improvement compared with 2018.

The numbers of deaths include passengers, aircrews such as flight attendants and any people on the ground killed in a plane accident

Large passenger aircraft in the study are planes used by nearly all travellers on airlines worldwide but excludes small commuter aeroplanes in service, including the Cessna Caravan and some smaller turboprop planes, according to To70.

On December 23, Boeing's board said it had fired Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg after a pair of fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX forced it to announce it was halting output of its best-selling jet. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an October 2018 crash in Indonesia and the crash of a MAX in Ethiopia in March killed a total of 346 people.-