The IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) is the global benchmark for auditing the management system of airline ground service providers. The ground handling industry with little integration from one airport to the next needs common standards and practices. Since its inception 10 years ago, the ISAGO program has been solidifying best global handling and management practices.
ISAGO has thus established a solid foundation for an increased standardization of an industry which, unlike other domains of the aviation industry, is very little regulated from the safety and operational point of view.
“ISAGO is modeled on the successful IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program," report IATA. "The ISAGO program is an audit system conducted in a standardized and consistent manner, using internationally recognized quality auditing principles.”
Unlike IOSA, it is a voluntary program for ground service providers and airlines that also provide contracted ground handling services. Despite being non-mandatory, however, ISAGO has proven to be very successful with a significant number of participants in its registry: As of February 2015, there were 304 total ISAGO registrations involving 167 ground service providers at 200 airports worldwide, according to IATA data.
That ISAGO has managed to achieve its maturity stage is confirmed by Ivar Busk, previously head of airside safety and now manager of insurance at Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS).
“On top of the significant number of ground service providers in the ISAGO registry, as far as I know all of the world’s largest ground handling companies are in the ISAGO registry, this is more than enough to say that the critical mass has been achieved” Busk says.
As ISAGO approaches its first 10 years of operations the time has come to reflect on its contribution to the safety of aircraft ground handling and on what lies ahead for ISAGO and the whole industry.
ISAGO'S PURPOSE
According to IATA, ISAGO aims to improve safety and cut airline costs by reducing ground accidents and injuries. Its purpose is “to reduce the risk of aircraft damage, reduce delays and eliminate redundant audits of ground service providers by airlines,” says IATA
ISAGO is meant “to provide for a general organizational audit standard which can fit to most ground service providers, avoid the duplication of operational standards and the replication of similar audits by multiple companies," Busk adds."From an operational perspective, it is very convenient to have one single audit standard instead of having multiple audits which is time consuming and resource intensive.”
ISAGO’s function as an essential alternative to the redundant audits ground handlers are subject to is particularly emphasized by IATA.
“While airlines have similar operational practices appropriate to one common audit," IATA report, "things are more complex for ground handlers, covering a wide scope of activities as diverse as passenger and baggage handling, load control, cargo handling, etc. To respond to the diversity of ground services, ISAGO has been built upon a ‘backbone’ of audit standards applicable to all ground handling companies worldwide, coupled with a uniform set of standards relevant for the specific activities of any ground handler. As a result, the ISAGO audit can be applied consistently to multinational ground handlers, as well as to smaller companies providing services at a single station.”
TARGETING SAFETY
ISAGO is not just about reducing the number of audits undergone by ground service providers, it is also, and more importantly, specifically targeting ground safety performance. Key elements of ISAGO are directed to ground safety performance, such as an improved safety oversight, the establishment of a uniform audit process and the implementation of harmonized ground handling standards.
With regard to the improved safety oversight enforced by ISAGO and in the perspective of improving ground safety performance, IATA notes how ISAGO currently includes SMS requirements for ground service providers in their standards.
Even if ground service providers may be subject to some extent to safety management requirements by the airport authorities they are in business with (in particular with regard to reporting), ground service providers are basically unregulated from the safety point of view and, thus, not subject to SMS requirements by law. The inclusion of SMS requirements in ISAGO is a clear indicator that the ground handling industry aims to conform to the highest safety standards and that it is doing so by means of self-regulation.
Additional ISAGO elements targeting ground safety performance according to Busk are the auditing of the SMS program, the verification that manuals are up to date with regard to training and then auditing on the spot to see if there is conformity between paper work and actual operating practices.
Busk also stresses with particular emphasis the function of SMS requirements within ISAGO.
“Safety management is an important part of ISAGO as the standard does not deal much with the practical operation," Busk explains. "For a ground service provider, leveraging on SMS’ functions should be of help to monitor deviations in the daily operations and by that catch up with dangerous situations, but it seems that some operators have not understood that yet: an SMS is a management tool and so management is accountable and responsible for it. As I see it, it is a matter of training on safety management requirements and raising awareness as to the importance of a just culture.”
LEVERAGING STRENGTH
According to Busk, considering the undeniable appreciation in the global ground handling industry, there is no particular key limitation to solidifying the critical mass of ISAGO. It can confidently be stated that ISAGO is most certainly going to stay; IATA however remarks how the supply of qualified ISAGO auditors may represent an issue.
“The only growth limitation would be the number of qualified auditors available to do the necessary audits," says IATA. "There are potentially thousands of providers and numbers could change quickly depending upon market forces.”
Since ISAGO has been produced - and is recurrently revised - by industry players, all requirements are of support to the bottom-line of a ground handling company.
“While some requirements could be improved but they all add value; otherwise they would not be in the program” says IATA.
According to Busk the value of ISAGO stands in the fact that “as soon as an audit is performed, the ground service provider will follow up with identified weaknesses in its present procedures and training records and systems, which is very positive.”
Busk also highlights how in smaller businesses ISAGO gives a kick to learn more of modern ways of thinking when it comes to preventive safety management efforts.
In a typical logic of continuous improvement, ISAGO is subject to recurrent revisions and updates. What additional requirements from ISAGO could be beneficial to improve ground safety performance? According to IATA, “perhaps there are no additional requirements from ISAGO itself, but formal recognition of ISAGO by regulatory authorities would give the program the status it deserves”.
According to Busk SMS implementation by ground service providers is an element worth particular attention.
“As SMS implementation matures within the ground handling industry safety management will eventually lead to the constant monitoring of loopholes in performance becoming a standard management and line practice," Busk says, "but it is important that proactive efforts start to be thoroughly implemented now that SMS requirements have been only recently introduced, otherwise the risk is that providers with more limited resources available limit themselves to a paper exercise only when it comes to SMS implementation.”
For proper implementation to happen he adds that there is a need to act now and already accept that a SMS cannot just be a paper exercise.
"It is a management tool," Busk says. "Top managers really need to believe in the SMS framework and enforce it within their organizations. The AHM in this respect provides a good description of management responsibilities with regard to SMS implementation. These are responsibilities that they cannot delegate."
According to Busk in order to further capitalize on ISAGO’s success it is important to emphasize a more practical approach to auditing on top of checking documentation and an enhanced focus on the training of personnel to standard practices, in particular in light of the availability of SOPs for ground operations from the IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM).
STANDARD PROCEDURES
With regard to IGOM, Busk highlights how the ISAGO audit standard is meant to be in tune with IGOM for more task-specific standards and procedures. Like ISAGO, which provides a framework for consistently auditing the management system of a ground service provider, IGOM represents another industry effort led by IATA to supplement for the lack of regulatory standards, it does so by defining and standardizing procedures for airline ground operations.
While there is extensive regulatory guidance both in North America and Europe for aircraft operations and this is derived from ICAO Annex 6 and the related ‘Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Operations’ (PANS – OPS), it contains very limited prescriptions for ground operations.
As an example, the European regulations on air operations contain very little requirements ground service providers need to take account of and these few are concerned with mass and balance and aircraft deicing/anti-icing. Furthermore these requirements are not technically for the ground service providers, but for the aircraft operators that need to make sure that their suppliers conform to the regulatory standards.
The regulatory framework governing airport operations also affects ground service providers. National requirements are derived from ICAO Annex 14 (aerodromes) and soon another ICAO document will complement Annex 14 in providing a framework for airport operations: Document 9981 “Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Aerodromes” (PANS-AERODROMES).
Taking again the European aviation safety regulations as an example, the regulation applicable to airports only contains one requirement that directly affects ground service providers and this is for the airport operator to implement procedures for the training, assessment and authorization of all drivers operating on the movement area. While an emphasis on safe airside driving is very important, the whole aircraft ground handling process per se is unregulated from the safety and operational point of view in the European regulatory framework.
The advent of PANS-AERODROMES is very important in that it will address existing aerodromes’ operational issues, while Annex 14 is more of an airport design document. A consultation of the draft of the PANS-AERODROMES document allows however to draw the conclusion that, while with PANS-AERODROMES there will be significant requirements for safety assessment efforts, the ground handling industry will still be far from having regulatory guidance that allows the development of common ground operations procedures.
IGOM is a more recent project of IATA and “it has been developed in response to industry demands for enhanced ground operational safety and damage reduction. IGOM is the core manual for all ground operations and provides standard procedures for the front line personnel” reports IATA.
IGOM is provided as a supplement to the IATA Airport Handling Manual (AHM) and it is overseen by a multidisciplinary task force comprising ground operations experts from airlines, ground handling companies and aircraft manufacturers. In a way IGOM also supplements ISAGO in that it provides procedures for passenger handling, baggage handling, cargo/mail handling, aircraft handling, load control and airside supervision and safety.
Like ISAGO, IGOM is another effort of the global ground handling industry to improve its safety performance by means of self-regulation and in the perspective of achieving the degree of standardization that a truly global industry like ground handling has been needing for a long time.
About The Author: Mario Pierobon holds a Master’s Degree in Air Transport Management from City University London and works in business development and project support at Great Circle Services in Lucerne, Switzerland. Mario regularly writes about aviation safety and his main professional and research interests are in the areas of airside safety.
