IATA, ASA Strengthen Alliance to Enhance Safety and Ground Handling Standards
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Airport Services Association (ASA) are advancing their collaborative efforts to bolster safety and standardization in aviation. Through enhanced data sharing and the development of industry best practices, this partnership aims to increase resilience within ground handling and cargo operations, as announced on November 8.
Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Safety, and Security, highlighted the significance of global standards in promoting safety. "Global standards make aviation safer, and ASA and its members have been instrumental in developing the IATA ground handling standards we rely on today,” he stated. He emphasized that sharing data will support this critical area with data-driven insights and decisions, encouraging participation from ground handlers to enhance industry-wide insights.
ASA’s Director General, Fabio Gamba, praised the alliance as a pivotal milestone. He underscored the joint approach between IATA and ASA as a means to better support professionals in cargo and ground handling globally. "Our goal is to ensure that there are standards and best practices that the entire industry can rely on," Gamba noted, expressing optimism about the potential of unified industry standards to strengthen operations.
The alliance between IATA and ASA will specifically focus on safety data and industry standards to achieve these goals. The ASA Safety Incident Database and IATA’s Incident Data Exchange, both part of IATA’s Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) initiative, will serve as central repositories for analyzing safety data. By sharing this information, both organizations aim to proactively identify and address safety issues in ground handling and cargo services.
On the standards front, ASA and IATA will work together to establish industry guidelines and enhance existing protocols for ground handling. This includes collaboration on crucial documents like the IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM) and the IATA Airport Handling Manual (AHM), with a focus on promoting industry adoption and reducing procedural variations.
Through this partnership, ASA and IATA aim to make aviation safer and more efficient by setting universally applicable standards that streamline ground handling operations across the industry. The ultimate objective is to foster an environment where safety and resilience are consistently prioritized, benefiting both aviation professionals and the traveling public.
This collaborative effort between IATA and ASA represents a significant step toward unified standards and procedures in aviation, reinforcing safety and resilience at every level of ground handling.
