DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Lufthansa Flight Training arm gains inspection approval
Lufthansa Flight Training subsidiary Aviation Quality Services (AQS) has become the first company licensed to perform the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) on airlines. The quality control audit will enable the airlines that pass it to carry the IOSA stamp of safety approval which may, in time, become a prerequisite for winning customer confidence.
AQS says it has "several airlines" interested in undergoing an IOSA audit, but cannot yet name them, and will be conducting its first audit this month. The Frankfurt, Germany-based company has the capacity to conduct two audits a month, says managing director Capt Heinz Burger.
All of IATA's 275 member airlines are being urged to have their first IOSA audit by 1 January 2006.
The IOSA is intended eventually to replace all regionally and nationally required quality-control safety audits by meeting or exceeding the minimum standards required by the most demanding of them, saving costs by eliminating the need for individual agencies to carry out separate audits.
They will not replace aviation authority oversight checks, but, increasingly, quality control audits are required of airlines on a periodic basis. For example, the US Federal Aviation Administration accepts IOSA approval as sufficient to give the go-ahead to codeshare deals by US carriers.
Source: Flight International
