CASA: From acting CEO and Director of Aviation Safety Graeme Crawford

Jul-2017 CASA has taken an important step in gaining access to additional safety information about foreign airlines. We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Air Transport Association - IATA - to access their safety audit reports. The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program is an internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. All IATA members are IOSA registered and must remain registered to maintain IATA membership. CASA will use the IOSA information to complement the existing oversight and surveillance of foreign airlines. It will also be used as part of the assessment process for new foreign carriers seeking authorisation to operate to Australia. In the future we expect to have access to IOSA information in relation to Australian carriers, which will be used to support our existing audit and surveillance work. CASA worked closely with IATA to understand their audit processes, quality assurance arrangements and management of approved auditors. Australia is the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to use IOSA as part of the safety oversight of airlines. The use of the information will benefit airlines as it will make CASA's surveillance and audits even more efficient and effective. IATA senior vice president safety and flight operation, Gilberto Lopez-Meyer, has said sharing IOSA information with regulators reduces the burden and costs of safety oversight. Agreements to share IOSA information are already in place with the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency and China.