News
Aviation Organizations Launch Safety
Information Exchange
Montreal – The International Air Transport Association (IATA), along with
three governmental aviation safety organizations, took the first step to
creating a global information exchange to improve aviation safety.
IATA, together with the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Commission
of the European Union (EU), has signed a Declaration of Intent to
exchange safety data. The signing took place during the ICAO
High-Level Safety Conference in Montreal.
“Today’s milestone agreement marks the first time the
global aviation community has come together to work on a global safety
information exchange. Data must drive our actions so that we can focus
our joint efforts on reducing the greatest risks,” said Giovanni
Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
“Working together with governments using global standards,
safety has improved tremendously. In 1945, there were 9 million
passengers and 247 fatalities. In 2009, 2.3 billion people flew with 685
fatalities. Every fatality is a human tragedy and reminds us that we
must do better. Today’s agreement is one more important step to make a
safe industry even safer,” said Bisignani.
Audit data will be a key element in the project.
IATA, ICAO, the FAA and the EU conduct audit programs that collect
complementary safety information. “We must understand safety trends, not
just from the handful of accidents each year, but by bringing together
and analyzing data from millions of safe flights. With this we can take
more effective action to reduce risks and improve safety performance,”
said Bisignani.
“There is no competition when it comes to safety.
Cooperation is the way forward. We have a common goal of zero accidents
and zero fatalities. The safety data from audits and oversight programs
contains important parts of a whole picture. Agreeing to put this data
together is a major step forward,” said Bisignani.
The four organizations will now start work on a way to
standardize safety audit information and ensure compliance with local
privacy laws and policies. This is targeted to be completed within 12 to
18 months.
The 2009 global accident rate, measured in hull losses per
million flights of Western-built jet aircraft, was 0.71. This is a
significant improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008. Compared to 10
years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36% from the 1.11 rate recorded
in 2000.
- IATA -
For more information, please contact:
Anthony Concil
Director Corporate Communications
Tel: +41 22 770 2967
Email: corpcomms@iata.org
Notes for Editors:
- IATA
(International Air Transport Association) represents some 230
airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic
- The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) created the IATA
Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) in 2001, focused on air carrier
organizations, operational management and control systems
- The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) created the International Aviation
Safety Assessments (IASA) audit program in 1992, focused on State
conformance with ICAO annexes 1, 6, and 8
- The
European Commission established the Safety Assessment of Foreign
Aircraft (SAFA) audit program in 1996, focused on air carrier
operational performance and compliance
- The
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) created the ICAO
Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (USOAP) in January 1999,
focused on State oversight capability and compliance with ICAO
annexes
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