The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday that there been a major dip in air accidents and a significant fall in accident rate worldwide, with the global airlines’ body asking all carriers to become part of its continuous safety monitoring system.  

 “There was not a single Western-built jet hull loss in 2012 for carriers on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry,” Guenther Matschnigg, IATA’s Senior Vice-President, Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, said. Speaking on the sidelines of IATA’s three-day Annual General Meeting here, he said the total accident rate of all aircraft types for IOSA-registered airlines across the world was 4.3 times better than the rate for non-IOSA carriers. “For the airline industry nothing can and should be left to chance. The key message is that there is no complacency when it comes to safety,” Matschnigg said.

IOSA members

At present, in India Air India, Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite are members of the IOSA and conform to the safety standards set by this audit on a regular basis.

With India close to setting up a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to replace aviation regulator DGCA, IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler recently said the CAA should take full advantage of the IOSA and the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) to enhance capacity building and skill development. 

nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in