MAS Fulfils IATA's New & Tough Safety Standards

[Naim 6]

Well done, MAS. I think this is important.

 

December 13, 2006 14:12 PM

 

MAS Fulfils IATA's New & Tough Safety Standards

 

GENEVA, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has fulfilled new and tough safety conditions laid down by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and in the process embraced global benchmark standards.

 

The association's director-general and chief executive officer, Giovanni Bisignani, said MAS had obtained certification for the IATA Operational Safety Audit or IOSA, the first global standard for airline operational safety auditing, early this year.

 

"Safety is air transport's number one priority and we are not resting on our laurels as far as safety is concerned," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the IATA Global Press Day 2006, here Tuesday, which is being attended by aviation and business journalists from all over the world.

 

Giovanni, who said he had met MAS managing director and chief executive officer Idris Jala several times since the latter took over the national carrier last year, lauded Idris "for doing everything right for MAS in safety and in other aspects as well."

 

"IOSA establishes an industry safety bar for everyone to see," he said.

 

To maintain their status on the IOSA Registry, airlines must undergo and complete an IOSA audit every two years.

 

He said that accident rate continued to decline this year and IATA's target to reduce it by a further 25 percent was met.

 

IATA has also set a target to reduce the accident rate by a further 25 percent by 2008.

 

Giovanni said that IATA, wanting to cut down the air accident rate further next year, was getting tough with all of its more than 250 members to obtain IOSA, failing which they would lose IATA membership.

 

Before IOSA, there was no common airline safety audit standards, he said.

 

Airlines were auditing one another on their ability to deliver a safe operation but the downside was that the audits had varying standards with no consistency.

 

To rectify this and develop the airline industry's first set of safety standards, he said IATA together with airlines and industry stakeholders joined hands to develop IOSA.

 

Among the many areas covered under IOSA include corporate organisation and management systems, flight operations, operational control, aircraft engineering and maintenance, cabin operations, ground handling, cargo operations and operational security.

 

Up till November this year, there had been 22 fatal air accidents with 864 deaths globally compared with 26 accidents for the whole of last year with 1,035 fatalities.

 

Mike O'Brien, IATA's director for programme implementation and auditing security, harmonisation, standardisation and new technologies, said in a presentation that accident rates showed improvements across most regions.

 

"But some areas such as Africa and Russia/CIS states remain a concern," he said.

 

Giovanni lamented that the accident rate in Russia is over 30 times the global average while some African states such as Swaziland, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Congo "are a tragic embarrassment."

 

-- BERNAMA

 

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=236144

[Sandeep G 1]

Well done, MAS. I think this is important.

 

This definately does call for some degree of fanfare over at MAS E&M! It seems to be an emerging trend from the department that was once referred to as the "Engineering Mafia".

 

Increased 3rd party contracts for E&M jobs will be easier to find with such accreditation at MAS by IATA.

 

The "FLYING TO WIN" aspect of the BTP sure is reaping some rewards for the airline! Congratulations MAS.

[Izanee 0]

isn't that the requirement of alliances that airlines need to be approved by IATA's new standards?

could this mean that MH is close to joining an alliance?? hahaha....we hope..