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IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) |
IATA plays an important part in ensuring aviation safety. Out of many programs it has, IOSA Audit which is internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system. It is designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.
The IOSA audit creates IOSA standards that are comparable on a worldwide basis, enabling and maximizing the joint use of audit reports. This has saved the industry over 6400 redundant audits and continues to lead to extensive cost-savings for IOSA participating airlines.
IATA is leading airlines to a high level of safety performance. Furthermore,
many governments enforcing the IOSA audit as a mandatory requirement for
airlines to land on its airports.
In
this article, I am going to give you a summary of IATA
Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Program.
IOSA Audit Benefits
Airlines and airports
benefit from IOSA Audit by achieving these goals:
- Quality audit
program under the stewardship of IATA
- Continuous
updating of standards to reflect regulatory revisions and best practices
- Elimination of
audit redundancy, reducing costs and audit resource requirements
- Accredited audit
organizations with formally trained and qualified auditors
- Accredited
training organizations with auditor training courses
- Structured audit
methodology, standardized checklists
- Quality audit
program under the stewardship of IATA
- Continuous
updating of standards to reflect regulatory revisions and best practices
- Elimination
of audit redundancy, reducing costs and audit resource requirements
- Accredited audit
organizations with formally trained and qualified auditors
- Accredited
training organizations with auditor training courses
- Structured audit
methodology, standardized checklists
IATA Membership versus IOSA Audit
All IATA members are IOSA registered and must remain registered
to maintain IATA membership, but non-members can benefit from the program. As
of December 2018, 139 (32%) of the 432 airlines on the IOSA Registry are
non-IATA member airlines.
Improving Airline Safety
IATA perform IOSA audit to cover a wide scope of airline's
management and operations which includes:
Aviation Crash
IOSA certified airlines does not mean they will not crash, but it
gives them confidence to passengers that IOSA certified airline follows a
standard to ensure safety.
Results reveal, that IOSA certified airlines had a crash rate
three times less than those airlines without IOSA certification.
Avoiding IOSA
Small regional airlines generally apply for IOSA audit purely
because of the following reasons :
- It is not
mandatory
- Avoiding the cost
- Difficult of
change
- Worry of fail
- CAA not
enforce IOSA audit compliance
- No
stability of airline operation
Not Eligibility For IOSA Audit
This because some aircraft operators are technically not
eligible for an IOSA Audit
- Operating aircraft below 5,700Kg MTO
- Business model does not allow for conformity with IOSA Requirements
Because of the vast amount of those operators, IATA developed a new evaluation program for the industry called “IATA Standard Safety Assessment ”. The IATA Standard Safety Assessment (ISSA) is a voluntary evaluation Program, based on IOSA.
Airlines have their Quality Assurance Program to perform an annual internal audit of the management system, as well as operations and maintenance functions to ensure that airline safety plan objectives are achieved and safety standards are properly applied throughout the airline's systems. Airline's QA program must be managed by a designated program manager, to address findings that result from internal audits and ensure significant program issues are subject to management review, and disseminating program information to management and non-management operational personnel. Quality Assurance Program must be documented and controlled. also, a database must be used to ensure the effective management of data derived from the internal audits.
Based
on Airlines Quality Assurance Program [internal audit results] , IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Program will
use internal audit results as inputs to
improve airline operational safety in line with ICAO
safety and security provisions and industry best practices from ICAO Annexes 1,
2, 6, 8, 17, 18 and 19 plus EASA regulations, FAA regulations, and Regulatory
oversight. IOSA standards are updated regularly.
Any airline wishes to have more information about IATA IOSA Audit, the following is the link - IOSA Audit.
This article is not a promotion article for IATA, it is the facts that I believe in [as an Internal Safety Auditor]. Aviation professional website welcome any comments regarding this article, you can leave your comments below.