Global aviation: 73 CEOs commit to IATA Safety Leadership Charter

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In a move to reinforce the safety culture in the global aviation sector, 73 airline CEOs have committed to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Safety Leadership Charter.

“Strong leadership and strong safety culture are interdependent. Both are needed to drive continuous improvements in safety performance. By putting their names to the IATA Safety Leadership Charter, 73 airline CEOs have set an example for their airlines and for the industry.

“The charter is a call to action that keeps in focus the critical obligation of airline CEOs to lead a safety culture that keeps their passengers and staff safe,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.

Global aviation leaders are currently in Dubai for the ongoing  80^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit.

The IATA Safety Leadership Charter: 8 principles

Developed in consultation with IATA members and the broader aviation community, the IATA Safety Leadership Charter aims to support industry executives in fostering a positive safety culture within their organisations based on eight leadership principles:

• Reinforcing safety through both words and actions.
• Fostering safety awareness among employees, the leadership team, and the board.
• Integrating safety into business strategies, processes, and performance measures.
• Building internal capacity to proactively manage safety and achieve organisational safety goals.
• Creating an atmosphere of trust where all employees feel responsible for safety and are encouraged to report safety-related information.
• Establishing clear expectations of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours.
• Ensuring all employees feel a shared responsibility for safety.
• Regularly assessing and improving organisational safety culture.

IATA aims to support continuous safety performance improvement across the industry through a three-pillar strategy: focusing on enhancing both safety leadership and culture within, identifying and mitigating risks through data collection and analysis from audits, accident reports, and other sources, and facilitating communication among safety leaders to report, discuss, and resolve safety issues.

In other news, the body announced a SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) Registry to accelerate its adoption.

Read: IATA projects SAF production to triple this year, sets up registry to support adoption

The registry is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2025. Seventeen airlines, one airline group, six national authorities, three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and one fuel producer are already supporting the effort to develop the registry.