The International Air Transport Association is strengthening its collaboration with the Airport Services Association. By strengthening their ties, these organisations aim to improve ground handling efficiency and safety through standardisation, promotion of safety data exchange, and collaboration on new approaches that enhance sector resilience.
Nick Careen, senior vice-president of IATA for operations, security, and safety, said: “Global standards have made aviation safer. ASA and its member companies were pivotal in developing the IATA ground handling standard we rely on now.”
By sharing data we can support this vital initiative with data-driven insight and decisions. The impact of data is maximized by a broad range of contributions. We encourage participation from ground handlers in order to enhance our collective insights.
Fabio Gama, ASA director general, stated:
“This is a significant partnership that leverages both IATA and ASA expertise.”
We will provide a more robust level of support to ground and freight handling professionals in the world by coordinating our approach. We want to ensure that there are standards and best practice that the industry can rely upon.
Working together for progress
The collaboration will include the exchange of safety data among the involved parties. Both organisations will exchange and analyse safety data through ASA’s Safety Incident Database, and IATA Incident Data Exchange (which is a part IATA Global Aviation Data Management Initiative). This will allow them to address safety concerns related to ground handling and cargo handling.
ASA will also continue to work with IATA to develop industry standards and best practices related to ground and cargo management, utilizing relevant data.
This work will focus in particular on key documents, such as the IATA Ground Operations Manual(IGOM) and IATA Airport Handling Manual(AHM), their acceptance by the industry and the reduction of variances.
