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Tyler... 38m flights reached safely.

Aviation is safe and getting safer says Iata director

LOS ANGELES, April 15, 2015

Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of International Air Transport Association (Iata), yesterday addressed the Iata Ops Conference in Los Angeles on the current scenario faced by the aviation industry, emphasising that aviation is safe and getting safer.

He recognised that the industry is in the spotlight globally and faces changing expectations for how it responds to an event.

Tyler underlined that aviation has become so safe that future gains must come from analysing data from all flights, not just the fractional percentage of flights where something goes wrong. “In 2014 there were 12 fatal accidents and we have had two so far in 2015, but over the same period approximately 38 million flights reached their destinations safely,” Tyler said.

Last year, the global jet accident rate measured in hull losses per one million flights was 0.23, the equivalent of one major accident for every 4.4 million flights, which was the lowest rate in history. The analysis showed a 60 per cent reduction compared to the five-year rate of one major accident for every 1.7 million flights, he pointed out.

Despite the improving safety trend, the industry has been confronted by a sequence of what seem like random disasters that have raised questions.

Addressing the theme of the conference, “Critical path: pivotal changes for safety & operations”, Tyler stressed that as an industry, it has to move forward to identify and focus on what has come to light as a result of the recent tragedies.

With each unfortunate incident that occurred, the industry was quick to initiate and implement safety measures, be it the adoption of a performance-based standard for global tracking of commercial aircraft post the disappearance and loss of the MH 370, or finding ways to reduce the risk of flying over conflict zones following the shooting down of MH 17, Iata’s director noted.

“That has been the industry’s modus operandi for decades and it has helped make aviation the safest form of long-distance travel the world has ever known,” Tyler said.

The Ops Conference is looking to provide a unique opportunity for informal dialogue on the new ‘pivotal change’, using a more technical approach to introduce a sense of openness in the safety dialogue.

Moreover, Tyler noted that future safety gains will come increasingly from analysing data from all flights, not just the infinitesimal percentage of flights where something goes wrong, which accounts for 0.0002 per cent in 2014. Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) programme, a comprehensive safety data warehouse, will provide analysis reports covering accidents, incidents, ground damage, maintenance and audits, plus data from nearly 2 million flights and over 1 million air safety reports. This extensive data should help Iata drive forward its Six-Point Safety Strategy which is a holistic multi-pronged approach to reducing risk.

“And while we have made significant progress in reducing the frequency of these events, we have more work to do. There are surprises and black swans. And there is an expectation that we as an industry will address them. Our discussions over the next two days will help to set the agenda for these pivotal changes,” Tyler said. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Iata | aviation | Conference |

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