The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced a significant milestone in aviation safety, with 73 airline CEOs committed to the IATA Safety Leadership Charter. This collective agreement underscores the aviation industry’s dedication to maintaining and enhancing its strong safety culture, which has contributed to exceptional safety records, including zero fatalities among IATA member airlines and those on the IATA Operational Safety Audit Registry in 2023.

“Strong leadership and a robust safety culture are interdependent and essential for ongoing improvements in safety performance,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, said.

“By endorsing the IATA Safety Leadership Charter, these 73 airline CEOs are setting a precedent for their airlines and the industry. The Charter serves as a call to action, emphasising the crucial role of airline CEOs in fostering a safety culture that ensures the safety of both passengers and staff.”

Principles of the Charter

The IATA Safety Leadership Charter was developed through collaboration with IATA members and the broader aviation community. It aims to help industry leaders cultivate a positive safety culture within their organisations, guided by eight key leadership principles:

Reinforcing Safety: Promoting safety through both words and actions.

Fostering Safety Awareness: Ensuring that employees, leadership teams, and boards are aware of safety practices.

Integrating Safety: Embedding safety into business strategies, processes, and performance measures.

Managing Safety Proactively: Building internal capacity to proactively manage safety and achieve safety goals collectively.

Creating Trust: Establishing a trust-based environment where employees feel responsible for safety and are encouraged to report safety-related information.

Setting Clear Expectations: Communicating and understanding acceptable and unacceptable behaviours regarding safety.

Encouraging Responsibility: Developing an environment where all employees feel responsible for safety.

Continuous Improvement: Regularly assessing and enhancing the organisational safety culture.

Three-pillar strategy

To support the industry in continuously improving safety performance, IATA employs a three-pillar strategy:

Safety Leadership: Focusing on both safety leadership and culture.

Safety Risk: Identifying and mitigating risks through comprehensive data collection and analysis from audits, accident reports, and other sources.

Safety Connect: Facilitating communication among safety leaders to report, discuss, and resolve safety issues.