Swiss International and Swiss European secure IOSA recertification

SWISS has had its two constituent airlines – Swiss International and Swiss European – recertificated following their latest IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). The recertifications ensure that SWISS retains its registration as an IOSA operator for its intercontinental and its European services for the next two years.

The IOSA programme is designed to establish and maintain consistent and internationally-recognised standards in the key areas of an airline’s management, flight operations, operations control, aircraft maintenance, cabin, ground handling, cargo and safety. “We regard it as a particular achievement that, with the latest substantially more rigorous audit provisions and requirements, we secured such an exceptionally good result,” says Rainer Hiltebrand, Chief Operating Officer at SWISS.

The latest IATA Operational Safety Audit was by far the most demanding to date. The innovations in this third edition of the audit included far more rigorous requirements with regard to the safety, security and supervision of internal and external processes – with suppliers, for example. SWISS is one of the first airlines to meet the new standards, which came into effect in October 2010.

The audits are conducted by an independent auditing company every two years, and are performed simultaneously for Swiss International and Swiss European. To date, some 350 airlines have met the internationally-recognised IOSA standards, whose achievement is now mandatory for all IATA members.

What is IOSA? The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is an internationally-recognised auditing programme for evaluating an airline’s operational processes, procedures and management systems. The IOSA programme is based on proven quality management principles, and has been developed to optimise operational workflows and (above all) to standardise such audits, make them comparable industrywide and promote the reciprocal acceptance of audit reports. Further information will be found at www.iata.org/iosa.