An industry approach to ground damage prevention
 The IATA Board of Governors has identified the elimination of Ground Damage and its estimated US$4 billion per year cost as an industry priority. IATA has been changed to work with airlines, airports and ground services providers to reduce the cost of damage by 10% this year and 50% over the next 5 years, very ambitious targets and challenges!
So, what is IATA doing? First of all IATA is promoting and deploying safety management systems (SMS). SMS is a critical element to instilling a safety culture. Some airlines have SMS, airports are getting them and ground services providers will need to follow suit.
A second initiative involves the collection of data and then the analysis of this data to track progress in reducing ground damage and identifying key trends and causes. IATA is developing a global ground damage database that will provide the industry for the first time with a reliable industry data source for ground damage to aircraft. Without this database there can be no industry benchmark to confirm the current situation and measure progress in reducing ground damage.
Ground Damage Prevention demands a proactive approach. It is unreasonable to assume the industry will find answers to the problem without a coordinated effort. Reactive solutions are ineffective and short term. Today we are only reacting incidents or accidents. To address the root cause and find long lasting solutions, we investigate, report and correct the causes of ground damage. We know that many ground damage incidents go unreported, and this is unfortunate, first for the obvious safety reasons, and second because each unreported incident is a lost learning experience.
The challenge we face as an industry is developing the tools that will allow all stakeholders to share information and then to develop a culture that rewards candid and honest reporting so we all can benefit from shared information and shared best practices to reduce ground damage.
In airline operations, safety is always the number one priority. However, there is evidence to suggest that more frequently than we would hope or expect, actions related to ground damage are often based more on on-time performance rather than accurate incident reporting. In addition, this situation is also driven by a culture of fear whereby employees and even teams of employees are punished should there be a ground damage incident. This is not the way to reduce incidents!
In addition, today many companies are reluctant to share data. While sharing data is a delicate issue in a competitive environment, our intention is to structure the information so it is anonymous, i.e. the whole industry will have nothing to lose and everything to gain in terms of improving safety performance.
Perhaps the most important aspect of IATA’s initiative is the development of IOSA certification for ground service providers. The initiative is being launched in November 2005 and will take until early 2007 to complete. An IOSA team will supervise the development of a certification that will eliminate the need for separate audits of ground service providers by airlines. This certification will provide ground service providers with greater credibility and attractiveness in the marketplace by virtue of the fact that it will give clients the peace of mind and understanding that the level of ground safety is at its highest possible level.
These three aspects of the IATA Ground Damage Prevention Programme (SMS, database and IOSA) are going to have an impact on the business processes and relationships of all stakeholders at the airport. Our shared challenge is to move beyond today’s corporate culture and business process to adapt the “teaching/learning” approach to reducing ground damage for the benefit of everyone.
This is our guests opinion and does not necessary reflect the alliance viewpoint. |
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