Montreal - The International Air Transport Association (IATA), along with three governmental aviation safety organizations, this week took the first step to creating a global information exchange to improve aviation safety.
IATA, together with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Commission of the European Union (EU), signed a Declaration of Intent to exchange safety data. The signing took place during the ICAO High-Level Safety Conference in Montreal.
"Today's milestone agreement marks the first time the global aviation.
community has come together to work on a global safety information exchange. Data must drive our actions so that we can focus our joint efforts on reducing the greatest risks," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO, in a statement.
"Working together with governments using global standards, safety has improved tremendously. In 1945, there were 9 million passengers and 247 fatalities. In 2009, 2.3 billion people flew with 685 fatalities. Every fatality is a human tragedy and reminds us that we must do better.
Today's agreement is one more important step to make a safe industry even safer," said Bisignani.
The four organizations will now start work on a way to standardize safety audit information and ensure compliance with local privacy laws and policies. This is targeted to be completed within 12 to 18 months. |
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