Forever changed

December 1st 2015

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As 2015 draws to a close, the Asia-Pacific airline industry should have one of its safest years on record. Read More » After the horror of 2014, when accidents involving two Malaysia Airlines B777s and an Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320 resulted in 699 fatalities, there have been no deaths from passengers flying on jet aircraft in the region. An Asiana Airlines A320 struck a localizer antenna as it landed at Hiroshima on a flight from Seoul. Twenty seven of the 82 passengers were injured, one seriously, but there were no fatalities.

But the record for turboprop aircraft has not been as good. In February, a TransAsia Airlines ATR-72-600 crashed during a flight from Taipei to the island airport of Kinmen. Of the 53 people on board, only 15 survived. In August, an ATR 42 operated by Indonesia’s Trigana Air Services crashed in the province of Papua, killing 54 onboard.

Such accidents and loss of life have intensified the industry’s endeavours to make flying ever safer. The now well-established International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit program (IOSA) continues to ensure the highest standards of safety for airlines with the introduction of an enhanced IOSA. The concept of objective one stop audits has been extended to include operators of smaller aircraft (with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) below 5,700 kg in the Standard Safety Assessment (ISSA).

The industry also has improved the tracking of aircraft, an operational process that came under intense scrutiny after the still unresolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines’ MH370 on March 8 last year. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is requiring all airlines to track their aircraft every 15 minutes by 2018. The majority of Asia-Pacific airlines are ahead of the timetable and have introduced 15 minute tracking for their networks, leading the world in doing so.

Another focus of debate during 2015 was the safety threat posed by large shipments of lithium ion batteries, commonly used in electronics such as smart phones and iPads. Many Asia-Pacific airlines have banned their transport in the belly space of passenger aircraft after their risks of combustion were fully revealed.

In an increasingly technological world airlines have become acutely aware of cyber security: the potential threats to their complex IT systems from hackers that can produce massive and very expensive disruption of their business, reservation and credit systems.

One major industry irritant that did not go away in 2015 was the disjointed security processes operated by different airports and the inconsistent approaches to aviation security by governments. Airlines continue to lobby for global standardization of security and are speeding up the introduction of more targeted and efficient passenger screening systems. A joint program between IATA and Airports Council International, Smart Security, has enlisted Amsterdam Schiphol, Geneva, Heathrow and Gatwick in London and Melbourne to test the concepts and solutions offered by what was formerly known as the Checkpoint of the Future.

Smart Security tenets are focused on risk assessments informed by new technologies and more efficient and cheaper passenger processing, particularly reduced passenger queuing times.