Introduction
The aviation industry is global in that it connects markets, people, and cultures across the world. Its revolutionary effects can be observed in terms of the industry’s influence on the social, economic, and political landscapes of the countries. However, one of the key issues in aviation is safety where the global partners define and oversee the implementation of international mechanisms and standards. Aviation safety has been regarded as among the major strategic objectives where the primary goal is to achieve continuity in air transport to sustain the resulting economic and social developments (Jung et al., 2018). Ireland, through the Irish Aviation Safety (IAA), has undertaken to improve aviation safety by participating in and meeting the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and European Union Aviation Safety (EASA). The IAA has set out various safety strategies to address the safety challenges faced by the country. This report discusses the strategic position of aviation safety in Ireland and highlights the strategic choices and best practices.
Strategic Position and Critical Analysis
The term strategy has no single universal definition as it has been applied in various contexts to mean different things. Among the popular usage of the concept of strategy is that expressed by Michael Porter whose narrowed definition revolved around competitiveness. He expressed that a strategy could be a perspective, ploy, position, or pattern that helps organizations gain an edge among the competitors (Athapaththu, 2016). Defined from the competitiveness perspective, the idea of strategic position becomes the position of a firm relative to that of the rivals (Dang and Leo, 2017). The strategic position directly relates to the ability to create value different from that of the challengers (Dimitrova, 2017). As mentioned earlier on, aviation industry is cooperative where several actors come together to develop strategies to improve the aviation operations. As such, the discussion of the strategic position of aviation can best be examined in terms of how it keeps up with international counterparts.
Current Strategic Position
Aviation safety in Ireland can be described as one of the best in Europe and the world due to the IAA’s commitment to safety. IAA approaches aviation safety from a strategic perspective where each year all the safety issues are reported and a strategic plan developed to address safety issues. IAA publishes the State Plan for Aviation Safety (SPAS) to highlight the actions taken by the state to maintain aviation safety in the country. A risk management process is used to assess key issues and to inform the continuous improvement plans (IAA, 2020). As one of the best in Europe and the world, the SPAS is developed through active participation in aviation safety management in EU and global bodies, EASA and ICAO respectively. To fully acknowledge the strategic position of IAA, global incident statistics can be compared to the Irish aviation incidents to reveal how IAA fares in comparison with global counterparts.
The 2019 performance safety review reveals that major aviation incidences are still occurring in Ireland and that the current safety measures are yet to achieve ultimate safety for airlines and people. There have been several high-profile incidents in 2019 where 20 fatal accidents killed over 280 people (Aviation Safety Network, 2020; Rawat, 2020). Even with these incidents, the year 2019 was regarded as one of the safest years as the tally of the incidents and casualties had gone down by more than half (The Economic Times, 2020; BBC News, 2020). In Ireland, the Mandatory Occurrence Reports (MORs) in the 2019 performance review indicate that only a few serious incidences were reported with a vast majority of them being minor ones. Such an observation is evidence of the fact that the country has made good progress in aviation safety.
The reported incidents in Ireland can be classified in several classes. By category, there was 1 non-fatal and 0 fatal accidents in 2019 in the Irish air fixed-wing commercial air transport (CAT) sector with the main issues reported including system failure/malfunction, cabin safety, and medical issues (IAA, 2019). In the commercial helicopter sector, there were 0 fatal and non-fatal incidences as minor incidences were reported in system failure/malfunction, other, and security-related (IAA, 2019). One fatal accident, however, was reported in 2017 and a non-fatal accident reported in 2015 (IAA, 2019). The example from these two categories reveals that Ireland indeed records very few incidences and with 2019 recording zero fatal incidents.
Other countries have experienced some worse events than Ireland in the year 2019. An article published by AIN Online’s Kenny (2019) highlighted several major occurrences recorded by October 2019. The incidences included an Orville accident where a plane overran the departure end and consumed by the post-crash fire (zero casualties and zero injuries) and a fatal mid-air crash in Mallorca with no survivors (Kenny, 2019). While a comparison with the rest of the world indicates that Ireland’s aviation safety ranks well, a comparison with all of Europe may not show a superior strategic position. In 2019, only one fatality was recorded in the general aviation incidents that involved EU-registered aircraft, a statistic that shows how efficient the safety strategies across Europe have been (Eurostat, 2020). Most of the accidents in Europe involved a non-Europe registered aircraft. The countries that recorded most fatalities included France, Germany, Spain, and Italy with 31, 22, 21, and 15 fatalities respectively. These account for 65% of all fatalities in the general aviation under 2250kg (Eurostat, 2020). Evidently, none of these major events have been recorded in Ireland in 2019.
By adhering to and actively participating in EASA, Ireland aviation safety has positioned itself as one of the countries committed to improving air travel safety. The commitment can be gauged from the SPAS 2020-2023 where many of the safety issues are addressed. As the report explains, the benefits of IAA’s participation in EU aviation safety activities include a wide pool of safety-related information that can be integrated into IAA’s safety management process (IAA, 2020). Additionally, IAA can share data on aviation risks emerging in Ireland and that can benefit the rest of EU. With such engagements, Ireland’s aviation safety can mirror the efficiency reflected across Europe thus ideally positioning itself as one of the best. The minor incidences may indicate ultimate safety is yet to be achieved, but the overall view is Ireland’s aviation safety can effectively protect air travellers.
Addressing Deficiencies
The 4–year strategic plan addresses most of the deficiencies highlighted in the safety performance review of 2019. However, several issues have been left out or that have not received as much attention as deserved. The SPAS addresses the operational risks in CAT and general aviation (GA) in chapters 3 and 4 respectively (IAA, 2020). In CAT, the strategic plan addresses loss of control in flight, mid-air collisions, controlled flight into terrain, runway excursions, runway incursions, bird and wildlife strikes, safety of ground operations, and aircraft environment. In the general aviation category, the SPAS addressed safety promotion, key risks in the GA, airspace infringement by GA aircraft, and miscellaneous risks (IAA, 2020). The safety performance review, on the other hand, reported additional deficiencies such as system failure, medical issues, and ground collision. The performance review stated expressly that the cabin safety and medical issues are statistically among the top 5 categories reported to the IAA in the MORs (IAA, 2019). Ignoring them or paying little attention to them means the strategic plan is yet to comprehensively address all the issues in Irish aviation safety.
There are other categories of deficiencies described in the performance review that have been completely left out in the SPAS. The categories include the commercial helicopter sector and air navigation services and airdromes (IAA, 2019). It can be argued that SPAS addresses only the generic issues ignoring those specific to Ireland. Even though IAA seeks to comply with the EASA and ICAO, there should be a section that lays out a strategy for handling unique issues.
Other Measures
The strategic plan does fall short as it fails to acknowledge a few safety issues some of which have been mentioned in the performance report. Besides safety issues in the commercial helicopter section and aerodromes, there is an emergent issue of incidents related to crimes. The 2015 fatal accident is still under the investigation by the Egyptian authorities who suspect criminal activity (IAA, 2019). Accident criminalization is becoming a safety consideration in some countries. For example, Air Canada suing Airbus for negligence in a 2015 incident where 23 people got injured (Aviation Safety Network, 2017). The strategic plan should consider the emerging literature on crime and terrorism in aviation as these aspects to perfectly fall within the scope of aviation safety.
Taking terrorism as a serious safety issues, the IAA should include the preventive measures it seeks to implement in SPAS. Counter-terrorism measures as explained by Radomyski and Bernat (2018), countering work-related crime (Skovly et al., 2017), and setting legal safety standards and safety culture in commercial aviation (Laerenson and Braithwaite, 2018) should all help refine the safety strategy and help IAA achieve a better strategic position in aviation safety. It is important to appreciate, however, the SPAS presents a brief description of safety culture, but it remains simply a matter of conformity as opposed to its own initiatives and best practices (IAA, 2020). Such aspects should be integrated into modern aviation safety strategic planning.
Besides the criminalization, other emerging regulations within ICAO should also require the SPAS to update their strategic plan. According to Bråthen and Hoff (2020), runway friction determines the raking performance of the aircraft alongside other factors such as the weight of the aircraft and the weather conditions. ICAO has updated the associated safety regulations requiring that the condition of the runways be reported by the flight crew for the necessary adjustments to be made. Such updates should also be reflected by the SPAS to make it a complete safety strategy document.
Strategic Choice and Best Practices
Aviation safety regulations are often the standards solely used in aviation safety management across the world. There are not many regulatory agencies publishing best practices in aviation safety. Those that do express such standards often emphasize other safety elements not properly handled through the legal standards. It can be argued that the aviation safety regulations offer the minimum standards that must be achieved, best practices, however, can be used to imply highest standards that can assure the attainment of the utmost safety outcomes. As explained by Bob (2017), the concept of best practices is used to mean the best way to do things or how things have been done successfully over time. In aviation safety, best practices entail those that go beyond the minimum standards set by IAA, EASA, ICAO, or any other agency.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published a best practices guide for cabin interior retrofits that recommends how aircraft should adopt new technologies to improve interior cabin conditions. The focus of the guidelines remains operational safety of aircraft (IATA, 2019). The various challenges such as fleet complexity, budget and schedule overruns, and expansive standards are addressed and recommendations offered. The emerging technologies have provided aircraft manufacturers and maintenance personnel with new ways of improving both customer experience and cabin safety. Many aircrafts, through the routine maintenance programs, have needed to be overhauled and retrofitted with new aspects. IATA (2019) best practices guide recommend what should be considered best practices in the context of aviation safety. Such initiatives can be seen as going an extra mile to ensure ultimate safety.
Another example of best practices guideline for the aviation industry is provided by EASA regarding the handling of passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines are formulated jointly with the European Commission to provide the aviation service providers with a roadmap on how to best handle passengers to ensure their ultimate safety (EASA, 2020). Lastly, IATA (2019) has also published a guidance document outlining best practices for reputation management in the digital age. Though not directly related to aviation safety, the best practices ensure that aviation staff would not become emotionally stressful in cases of accidents when reporting to major incidences with fatalities. These examples indicate that beyond the standard safety guidelines, the safety regulatory agencies across the world are going a step further to recommend practices that can improve the overall safety outcomes.
In the case of Ireland, the aviation safety plan minimally describes any best practices beyond the regulatory standards meaning it also minimally adheres to them. The SPAS does describe emerging issues and their implication to aviation safety (IAA, 2020). For example, it discussed COVID-19 and Brexit in the context of operational risks. Such an approach confirms the argument that besides the regulatory standards, Irish aviation safety hardly incorporates best practices. However, it should be acknowledged that IAA is keen to examine how current issues and trend affect aviation safety. Consider, for example, the integration of drones into the civil aviation system, digitization, and ebusiness models being adopted by the commercial aviation. Though not expressed as best practices, the strategic plan is visibly keen on moving a step above the minimum safety requirements (IAA, 2020). It can be argued, however, that these emerging issues are simply safety issues that any aviation authority is obligated to address. Whatever the perspective, IAA strategic plan does adhere to various best practices guidelines. The issue of COVID-19, as mentioned above, has been presented by IATA (2019) as a best practice guideline rather than a regulation. As such, the same can be said about IAA in its efforts to address the pandemic.
From the risk management perspective, however, several of the elements in the SPAS can be described as best practices. Among the best practices in risk management include integrating the risk management practices into the overall corporate culture and management. Secondly, increasing the scope of the analysis and application or risk management, and including behavioral aspects in the risk management process. IAA (2020) does emphasize in the SPAS document that the safety management approach adopted included risk management processes used to identify the risks in civil aviation, assess the risks, plan mitigation actions, implement the planned actions, and monitor the results of the risk management process. IAA (2020) does not only formulate the safety guidelines but also monitor their application to identify problem ares and using the data to refine the regulations. In terms of embedding behavioural aspects, the SPAs document does recommend the appropriate safety culture and the people element in aviation safety. Such actions can easily qualify as forming part of IAA’s best practices.
Conclusion
This report examines the strategic position of the Irish aviation safety focusing on the strategic plan for 2020-2023 and the 2019 safety performance review. Due to IAA’s adherence to the EASA and ICAO guidelines, the Irish aviation safety ranks among the best in the world. It has been indicated that European standards are relatively high in comparison to others. However, the fact that no fatalities were recorded in Ireland in 2019 indicates that the country is still far ahead of the European counterparts. The report has also explained why some of the elements included in the strategic plan qualify as best practices. Viewed from a risk management perspective, components such as safety culture and the people element indicate the willingness of IAA to go beyond the minimum standards to ensure ultimate safety in Irish Aviation.
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