IATA targets 60 airports for ground handling audits in 2008

IATA plans to launch a standardized audit for ground handing companies starting in mid-April 2008, reviewing ground operations at as many as 60 airports by year’s end.

Called the IATA safety audit for ground operations (ISAGO), the 2- to 3-day review will cover 11 categories, including airside management and safety, load control, passenger and baggage handling, aircraft fuelling, de-icing, anti-icing, and for the first time, a management review at each company’s headquarters.

Though airlines are already required to audit their ground handling companies, the efforts tend to overlap, each audit is different and there is no data-sharing between airlines or companies, says Mike O’Brien, IATA’s director of program implementation and auditing.“

Some of the larger ground-handling companies have full-time staff just to receive the audits,” he says. By pooling airline-employed auditors and working to a single standard, large airlines will likely be able to cut their auditing staff by at least 50%, allowing carriers and ground handling companies alike to reallocate those employees to “more productive roles,” O’Brien says. “It looks like we will be starting with 30 to 40 medium-to large-size airlines in the pool,” says O’Brien.

Once an IASGO audit is performed for one ground handler’s operation at a particular airport, any airline working with that company will have access to the audit data, eliminating the need for redundant reviews. Audits will initially be performed on an annual basis though the period could be lengthened based on the company’s performance and a risk assessment, says O’Brien. Funding for the program will come from airlines paying salaries for their auditors and from ground handling companies through a registration fee. The amount of the fee has not been determined.

Aside from industry pressure to perform well, O’Brien says ground handling companies could encounter airport authorities who have suggested they will require a successful audit as a prerequisite for operating at the facility.

IATA has completed 12 ISAGO pilot audits at airports ranging from Cairo to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Four more tests – in Beirut, Vancouver, Nairobi and Mombasa -- are planned for completion by the end of January. Audits were performed by airline auditors and observed by IATA specialists.

Results from the pilot programs show that the “depth of the standards was good,” says O’Brien, though he says some changes will be necessary given that in some cases there was uncertainty regarding what was meant by audit questions.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
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[Mombasa Flights]

Thanks for this information.. I heard that IATA regarded this 95 per cent target as an improvement on previous competition among other terminals...