Air travel to be made even safer under UN-backed roadmap of best practices

Air travel, already billed as the safest form of transportation, will be made even safer under the first-ever government-industry joint programme, supported by the United Nations aviation agency, for a unified approach to reducing accident rates, particularly in developing countries.

“Analysis of recent accidents in regions with poorer safety records show that nearly all were caused by previously well-understood factors with equally well-understood mitigating actions,” the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap says in its introduction.

It seeks to establish one level of aviation safety worldwide by setting forth a whole series of “best practices” for meeting goals in 12 main focus areas, including implementation of international standards, regulatory oversight, incident and accident investigation, safety management systems and sufficient qualified personnel.

For instance, it cites two reasons typically underlying inconsistent implementation of international standards – lack of capability and lack of will. The former can be addressed by international aid, while the latter may require enforcement such as preventing operators in non-conforming States from flying internationally or those in conforming States from operating in non-conforming States.

“With air travel already being the safest form of transportation, the challenge to industry and regulatory agencies is to make an already safe system safer,” the Roadmap says.

The initiative stems from a 2005 meeting between the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Air Navigation Commission and industry representatives where it was acknowledged that further enhancements to aviation safety required better alignment of strategies and coordination of efforts by all concerned.

Part 1 of the Roadmap covering the focus areas was delivered to ICAO in December 2005 and subsequently endorsed by a Conference of Directors General of Civil Aviation of ICAO Contracting States in March 2006. Part 2 covering implementation was presented to ICAO this week.

The Roadmap was produced by the Industry Safety Strategy Group composed of the International Air Transport Association, Airbus, Boeing, Airports Council International, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, the Flight Safety Foundation and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations.