CAAS and IATA collaborate on information sharing to enhance aviation safety

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) have signed a Working Arrangement (WA) to exchange safety information in relation to the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) programme. The WA, which was concluded under the ambit of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by CAAS and IATA in April 2019, specifies the working procedures to effectively implement the MOU.

IOSA audits on airlines are carried out in accordance with requirements that take reference from the International Civil Aviation Organization’s standards and industry best practices. The IOSA audit reports provide useful supplementary safety information for CAAS’s aviation safety oversight of air operators. Singapore is the third Asia Pacific country to draw on IOSA information for this purpose.

The WA was signed by Mr Alan Foo, Director (Flight Standards), CAAS, and Mr Blair Cowles, Regional Director (Safety & Flight Operations), IATA, on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow 2020.

Mr Foo said, “CAAS is pleased to deepen our partnership with IATA. This working arrangement underscores CAAS’s commitment to enhance aviation safety by continually building a robust and progressive regulatory regime. The aviation industry always benefits from the transparent exchange of such safety information.”

“IOSA is an internationally accepted and recognised evaluation system that uses internationally recognised quality audit principles and is designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. We encourage other States in the Asia Pacific region to look at using IOSA information to supplement their safety oversight. This will help regulators target the deployment of their safety oversight resources and reduce the number of duplicate audits that airlines must undergo,” said Mr Cowles.