Monday 24 January 2011

Air France has acknowledged the recommendations on flight safety in a report submitted by the Independent Safety Review Team.

The safety review team, which strictly underlined that the work carried out did not constitute an audit, nonetheless added that the airline fully complies with all regulatory requirements.

The safety review team presented 35 recommendations with a view to helping the airline pursue its ongoing flight safety improvement process.
In late 2009, Air France decided to launch a large-scale programme to place flight safety at the highest level of industry standards. To this end, the Trajectoire programme was launched in-house and a Comité Mixte de Propositions (CMP) was set up, grouping together unions and Company Management. These bodies will now help to examine the recommendations submitted by the independent safety review.

Air France has already implemented the preliminary recommendations of the independent safety review such as the creation of the Flight Safety Committee within the Air France Board of Directors and the launch of an in-flight observations campaign, the LOSA (Line Operations Safety Audit), following the example of other airlines in the U.S., Asia and Australia, implemented for the first time by a major European airline.

The independent safety review’s work mainly focused on listening to employees’ accounts and observing the airline’s operating methods. These observations were analysed by the safety review team’s eight experts: safety systems and safety management in aeronautical sectors or other sectors, “resilience” of the organisations and human factors. The findings primarily concern the Company’s organisation, its corporate culture and the individual behaviour of its staff, managers and unions.

This approach is fully compliant with the “Embark” strategic plan which establishes flight safety as an absolute priority for Air France.

Most of the recommendations will be rapidly implemented in line with a schedule to be defined shortly and monitored in the groups concerned. The adaptation, postponing or non-acknowledgement of any of these proposals will be subject to discussion and validation by these groups.

The report indicates: “The formation of the Independent Safety Review Team in a public manner and providing it a broad charter to examine flight safety at Air France was a courageous act. It represents an example of safety leadership rarely seen in today’s international aviation industry”.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, CEO of Air France-KLM stated: “Air France is the only airline to have submit itself, on its sole initiative, to the opinion of a team of external experts to whom I extend my gratitude for the quality of the work accomplished. By implementing their recommendations, which combine the best practices observed individually in other airlines worldwide, Air France will place its flight safety performance at the highest level possible”.

Set up in December 2009, the independent safety review on flight safety comprised eight acknowledged independent experts of international standing chosen to combine French and Anglo-Saxon mindsets. The review team looked into all the internal operating modes, decision-making processes and practices that might have an impact on the safety of Air France flights, by combining a systematic viewpoint on safety with practical experience in running operations at airlines comparable in size to Air France. On this basis, following an inquiry that ran throughout 2010, the experts made proposals that will serve as drivers for our continuous safety improvement process.