Safety
Revamped safety strategy emphasizes leadership Although aviation’s safety record is exemplary, IATA is constantly looking to make the industry even safer. INTERVIEW BY: GRAHAM NEWTON
64
T
he latest figures show that in 2021 airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry—which includes all IATA members— experienced zero fatal accidents. And, for the first time in at least 15 years, there were no runway/taxiway excursion accidents. On average, a person would need to take a flight every day for 10,078 years to be involved in an accident with at least one fatality. Nevertheless, the desire to continuously improve flight safety remains, stresses Mark Searle, IATA’s Global Director for Safety. “And, as air traffic resumes its growth after a hiatus, it’s more important than ever that we identify new opportunities to mitigate the risks of an aircraft accident,” he says. “This isn’t easy because our achievements to date have delivered significant improvements in flight safety and so, looking forward, we are focused on creating marginal gains through a more refined approach to enhance safety performance.” This desire to progress in an ever-changing, ever-safer industry has led to a new IATA safety strategy based on a holistic, end-to-end approach built on three pillars.
Safety leadership
The first pillar in the revamped safety strategy is safety leadership. This aims to support airline executives and industry leaders across the world, set a tone that enables effective safety conversations across the workforce, and through consistent messaging ensure staff take personal ownership of safety, no matter the job title. Safety leadership emphasizes the importance of individual safety accountability within an organization’s safety culture. It provides a huge boost to safety efforts by promoting the importance of reporting, increasing safety intelligence, and ensuring safety performance programs are delivering on the right things. It is typified by Just Culture, which entitles an employee to make observations on their own performance or the performance of others in a non-punitive environment. To assist safety leaders, IATA has developed the Safety Leadership Charter to support a positive safety culture within airlines. The Charter lays out a number of guiding principles, including: 1. Fostering safety awareness with
Airlines 2022 – 02
P64-65 Safety_Airlines 2022-02.indd 64
24/05/2022 17:19