Proven track record

October 1st 2023

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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) marked the first 20 years of its Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) at the World Safety and Operations Conference in Hanoi. “Over two decades, IOSA has made a major contribution to improving safety, while reducing the number of redundant audits. Read More » While it is a condition of IATA membership, more than 100 non-IATA member airlines see the value of participating and we welcome others. Likewise, while more than 40 governments use or are intending to use IOSA in their safety oversight programs, many more do not,” the airline body’s senior vice president Operations, Safety and Security ,Nick Careen.

On aggregate, data confirms airlines on the IOSA registry have a lower accident rate than airlines not on the registry. Since 2005, the all-accident rate for airlines with IOSA verification is 1.40 per million sectors compared with 3.49 per million sectors for non-IOSA airlines.

In 2022, IOSA registered carriers outperformed those not on the registry by a factor of four (0.70 accidents per million sectors vs. 2.82 accidents per million sectors).

Reflecting the strong safety performance of airlines on the IOSA registry, IATA has entered into IOSA’s third decade with a call for:

• Regulators to recognize the significant contribution to safety IOSA makes as the global standard for airline operational safety and to incorporate IOSA into their own safety regulatory oversight programs.

• Airlines not yet on the IOSA registry to join. At press time, 417 airlines are on the IOSA registry, of which 107 are non-IATA members.

IOSA was launched in September 2003 with Qatar Airways as the first airline to be audited and join the Registry. It has been a requirement for IATA membership since 2006 and is a condition of membership of the three global airline alliances, as well as a number of regional airline associations. It is used by regulators in numerous countries to complement their safety regulatory oversight programs, and as the primary means to verify operational safety for many airline codeshare arrangements.

The audit assesses an airline’s conformity with IOSA standards and recommended practices (ISARPs). These are based on the internationally agreed standards and recommended practices set down and maintained through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

IOSA was developed in cooperation with aviation regulatory bodies, including Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada.

Last year, IATA began evolving IOSA to a risk-based model which tailors an audit to the airline’s profile and focuses on high-risk areas. The new approach also introduces a maturity assessment of the airline's safety-critical systems and programs.

“IOSA is the globally recognized standard for airline operational safety auditing. Now we are taking it to the next level by tailoring the audit activity to the operator’s profile and focusing on high-risk areas. As IOSA evolves to deliver greater value for the operator and the industry, we hope additional airlines will see the value of this important safety program and strongly urge more governments to make it a formal part of their safety oversight,” Careen said.