Across-the-board 10% budget cuts at the International Air Transport Association include reductions in its safety department just as it is about to implement a safety audit.
The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) programme, to go live next July after a trial earlier in the year, is intended to help unify international operating standards on a voluntary, but accredited, basis. But safety department chief and IOSA designer Capt Paul Woodburn will be made redundant next March with some of his staff, raising doubts over IATA's ability to implement the new system on schedule.
Revealing the IOSA launch schedule at the Flight Safety Foundation/IATA safety seminar in Dublin, Ireland, this month, Woodburn said major alliance carriers had agreed to take part in the trial from next January to May. Airlines have said they expect to use IOSA as a standards indicator to begin with, only codesharing with IOSA-registered carriers in future. The first real IOSA audits will take place in July, enabling the subject airlines to become IOSA registered, which Woodburn hopes will not only improve their safety systems but earn them credibility with the media and travel industry. Data gathered will be held by IATA on its database, but will remain the property of the audited airlines.
Although an IOSA audit will cost an airline up to $60,000, says Woodburn, it will eliminate the need for multiple internal cross-auditing systems that codesharing airlines have to set up, and it reinforces International Civil Aviation Organisation operational standards and recommended practices.
The process of maintaining IOSA standards and integrity will be constant. Airline IOSA registration will last only two years before the need for confirmation, and the auditing teams must be monitored independently for adherence to consistent standards. National regulators and the European Joint Aviation Authorities have worked with IATA to create IOSA but want to observe it before giving it any specific status, says Woodburn.
Source: Flight International
