Skytrax says global Airline Safety Rating is not feasible

2013-07-09 — /travelprnews.com/ — Skytrax do not publish a separate rating of airline safety standards or list airline safety record details, because there is no accurate, global reference of safety standards and/or safety incidents which provides information that can be truly trusted by passengers, or supplies total accuracy to customers in choosing an airline.

This can be an emotive subject for airline travellers, and we believe they deserve 100 per cent accuracy. It is critical that any single, global measure of Airline Safety provides exactly that – a single rating format with no gaps caused by inconsistency in the way safety incidents may or may not be reported.

Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said:

“It is fact that at the present time it is not possible to obtain (or to provide) accurate or consistent global reporting about airline safety incidents. This applies to either the accuracy or consistency of reporting from all airlines around the world, and also being able to achieve guaranteed consistency of reporting from regulatory or governing bodies in all countries around the world.

Skytrax have direct experience and knowledge about airline safety incidents that occurred in some countries around the world which were not publicly reported, or reported by the governmental or regulatory authorities. For this reason, we consider it could be potentially misleading to try and apply a Safety Rating level that from a statistical and scientific basis cannot reflect an accurate or trusted global Airline Safety Rating scale.

Skytrax rate airline Cabin Safety Standards, which is based on our direct Audit experience and analysis of how efficiently and consistently cabin safety standards are applied by an airline’s cabin staff, before and during flights.

In many instances, Skytrax inspect airline’s Safety Training courses, examine training procedures and practical Safety Training. However, to publish a global Airline Safety Rating would be foolhardy from a professional perspective, because there is no accurate or scientific formula that can be applied on an industry-wide basis.

When it comes to rating Airline Safety standards, Skytrax focus safety reference to airlines registered within the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). This is a trusted source for the airline industry.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. All IATA members are IOSA registered and must remain registered to maintain IATA membership.

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