About the Seminar “IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA)”

Within the course of the implementation of the Agreement on cooperation between IAC and IATA and the results of the meeting between the President of the Interstate Council, Chairperson of IAC Dr. T. Anodina and IATA Director General Mr. Alexandre de Juniac, during the period 4-6 September 2018 “IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA)” Seminar was held in the premises of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) within the frame of the ICAO/IAC Project RER/01/901, and which was prolonged on the unlimited basis by the Chairperson of IAC and the President of ICAO Council in 2016. IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) is the IATA standard for the evaluation of the airline operational safety. Leading ICAO Member States have adopted IOSA at the state level for the evaluation of the operational safety of their airlines.
In the Member States of the Agreement on Civil Aviation and Use of Airspace 25 airlines have passed IOSA audit, 12 of these airlines – from the Russian Federation.
At the first day of the seminar active IOSA auditors from Germany, Ireland, Canada, Cyprus, Turkey, France, IAC, etc. met to consider the comparative statistic flight safety data of the airlines, which have passed and which have not passed IOSA audit.
The comparative analysis showed that the flight safety level in the airlines, which had passed IOSA audit, was 3 times higher that the level of flight safety in the airlines, which did not have IOSA certificate. The participants of the seminar also discussed quality control issues as related to the improvement of the effectiveness of the interaction of the IOSA external auditors and the internal auditors of the airlines, as well as the responsibility of the parties. Further strategy of the auditors’ work was considered and new working directions were discussed.
During the 2-rd and 3-rd days of the seminar more that 150 leading aviation specialists from the CAAs, airlines and airports of the Member States of the Agreement took part in its work. Altogether specialists from 17 states participated in the work of the seminar.
IATA auditors presented information on the following subjects:
- IATA structure;
- Statistics of the airlines, which have passed and which have not passed IOSA audit;
- Responsibility of the parties;
- Quality control;
- IOSA development for 15 years;
- Overview of the future IOSA activity directions;
- New model of the Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) Programme in the IATA airports.


In addition to that, Head of the Flight Department of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) made a presentation for the Civil Aviation Administrations. He emphasized in his presentation that the States of the European Community had adopted IOSA standard at the state level, which allowed to enhance the flight safety information awareness of the airlines of the community, involve highly qualified specialists in the flight safety level evaluation (IOSA auditors) and introduce the best aviation industry practices in the airlines.
In the course of the discussion IATA auditors have given qualified answers to the questions of the participants of the seminar. By the and of the seminar all the participants have filled in the questionnaire, in which each participant could state his opinion concerning the work of the seminar and give their comments or suggestions for the future IOSA audits.
The meeting decided to continue the work on the involvement of the airlines in the participation in the IOSA Programm, which would help promote flight safety in the region.