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SAFETY AT THE BOUNDARIES: MANAGING RISK BEYOND THE AIRCRAFT

Presented by Sara Byrne

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SAFETY RISK AT ORGANISATIONAL AND OPERATIONAL INTERFACES

The first challenge is what I’d call interface risk.

Increasingly, the hazards we’re managing aren’t originating inside the airline – they’re coming into the system from outside our direct control.

That includes:

Variability in ground handling services
Passenger behaviour and medical complexities
Undeclared dangerous good.

In our operations, with third-party ground handlers and ACMI flying, we rely on multiple organisations to deliver a safe outcome – but the standards, training, and risk tolerance aren’t always aligned.

We see this play out in very practical ways – things like data accuracy issues, coordination gaps between airport handling and operations control, and inconsistent escalation pathways.

The challenge here isn’t that people aren’t trying to do the right thing.

It’s that safety lives at the boundary between organisations – and that’s where control is diluted.

So for us, the focus is shifting from:

“How to we manager our own risks?”

…to:

“How do we design a system that is resilient to variability at the interfaces?”

Because that’s where the next layer of risk is emerging. The next steps isn’t more procedures – it’s:

Better alignment between operators and ground providers
Clearer shared accountability
And more open data sharing across those interfaces.

That’s where collaboration becomes critical.

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MANAGING SAFETY IN AGEING AIRCRAFT AND SYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY

The second challenge is managing safety in the context of ageing aircraft and system sustainability.

This is something many operators are dealing with in different ways.

What we’re seeing is that the safety challenge isn’t just about the aircraft themselves — it’s about the ecosystem that supports them.

Across the industry, that includes things like:

Components and systems becoming harder to support over time
Data systems and software no longer aligning with modern requirements
Regulatory expectations continuing to evolve
And increasing reliance on limited or shared external infrastructure — like training devices

Individually, none of these are new risks. But collectively, they create a situation where:

The aircraft may remain fully compliant and airworthy
But the supporting system becomes more complex and less predictable over time

So the question going forwards is: “How do we, as an industry, stay ahead of system degradation – not just react to it?”

Because these aren’t risks any one airline can solve alone. They rely on OEM support, regulator engagement and access to training infrastructure.

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CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN REPORTING, LEARNING AND TRUST

The third challenge is around learning – and trust in the system.

Like most airlines, we have a strong reporting culture.

What we’re now seeing, though, is that reporting on its own isn’t enough.

From our internal safety climate work, the consistent feedback is:

People want more timely feedback
More visibility of lessons learned
And clearer evidence that reporting leads to meaningful change

Where that doesn’t happen, two things occur:

Information gaps get filled by crumours
And confidence in the system starts to erode

We’ve also identified that investigations and learning can become fragmented if they’re not consistently centralized and integrated.

So the where to from here for us is how do we make safety learning more visible, faster and more shared across the industry. Because the risks we are seeing are not unique to one airline.

Ultimately, safety improves fastest when we learn together, not in isolation.

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QUESTIONS