Air Malta obtains IATA certification for third time

An Air Malta statement issued today explained how IATA had renewed the company’s IOSA registration for a further two years until the next audit scheduled for 2012.

The IOSA Program was the global flight safety and quality benchmark recognized by member airlines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The audit examined the airline’s regulatory compliance of operation in eight main areas: flight operations, operational control and flight despatch, aircraft engineering and maintenance, cabin procedures, ground handling, cargo operations and operational safety.

Activities in these eight areas were conducted on the basis of more than 900 requirements examined in the course of an IOSA airline audit, and which the airline had to be able to fulfil in order to gain registration with this international body.

The audit this year was conducted by IATA on the basis of more rigorous and updated standards, taking into consideration the ever evolving industry standards. Every operational area of the airline was involved in a week-long audit conducted by a team of six certified auditors.

“The successful IOSA audit further strengthens the professional reputation of Air Malta since IOSA registration is highly valued and mutually accepted at International levels, thus representing a more than acceptable guarantee of quality for our customers,” commented Air Malta chairman Joe Cappello on the attainment of this qualification.

“This certification will help Air Malta in its commercial dealings such as code-sharing and aircraft leasing,” he added.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program was an international recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.

 IOSA used internationally recognised quality audit principles and was designed so that audits were conducted in a standardised and consistent manner.

It was developed with a view to best industry practices and continued to be further developed to go beyond the strict official requirements.  This had made it a highly respected air industry certification generally accepted as a benchmark around the world. 

The aim of the program was maximisation of quality and improving the security and cost-efficiency of the industry.  The standards incorporated many requirements from ICAO, FAA, JAA and EASA as well as best practices from airline audit programmes in existence already.

The standards were developed by more than 100 industry specialists from all over the world.