David Learmount / London
After positive reception in industry, fledgling scheme faces credibility problem as it battles for recognition from regulators
The International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is undergoing severe teething problems according to sources at IATA and several airlines, after initially being welcomed by all sectors of the industry.
IATA admits that the major regulators like the US Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency have not sanctioned IOSA as an alternative to existing compulsory audits. The association has been selling the IOSA as a biennially renewable $150,000 service that will save airlines money because it will make other audits unnecessary.
Mike O'Brien, head of IOSA at IATA's Montreal office, admits the system has a "credibility problem" until it receives recognition from the major national regulators, which he says IATA is working on.
O'Brien says IOSA was designed through working with regulators from Australia, Canada, Europe and the USA and with the International Civil Aviation Organisation as an observer.
He explains that IATA receives a $15,000 handling fee for each IOSA, but the audit is carried out by accredited agents - of which four have so far been approved - which bid to carry out the audit for around $150,000.
The board has ratified a proposal that all IATA member airlines should be IOSA-approved by the end of 2006 and membership applicants should undergo an audit before entry.
In a blow to IOSA's credibility, some months ago, British Airways, an IATA member airline whose chief executive is on the association's board, said it was not going to apply for an IOSA.
BA's head of safety Roger Whitefield says part of the reason is that the UK Civil Aviation Authority will not give the airline any freedom from safety oversight audits in return for being IOSA-cleared, so "there is no value for money in it".
At the other end of the airline scale, small Norwegian regional carrier Widerøe , an IATA member airline, declared at the early November Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Washington DC that it was angry about the price of IOSA, saying it was impossible for small carriers to afford.
To prepare for an audit Widerøe paid $600 for the IOSA standards manual, and the airline's vice-president quality and safety Per-Helge Røbekk says that most of its content could have been found in Joint Aviation Requirements (Operations) with which, Røbekk says, it is already compliant.
United Airlines is one of the accredited IOSA agents, which makes sense because the main beneficiaries of IOSA could be the US carriers if the FAA accepts it as an alternative to the codeshare audits that US airlines have to carry out on their partners, whether or not they are US registered.
Source: Flight International
