73 CEOs Commit to the IATA Safety Leadership Charter, Strengthening Global Safety Culture

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the number
of airline CEOs committing to the IATA Safety Leadership Charter has reached 73. This reinforces
aviation’s already strong safety culture which contributed to some best-ever results in 2023,
including no fatalities among IATA member airlines or the airlines on the IATA Operational Safety
Audit Registry.

“Strong leadership and strong safety culture are interdependent. And both are needed to drive
continuous improvements in safety performance. By putting their names to the IATA Safety
Leadership Charter, 73 airline CEOs have set an example for their airlines and for the industry. In
doing so, the Charter is a call to action that keeps in focus the critical obligation of airline CEOs to
lead a safety culture that keeps their passengers and staff safe,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director
General.

The IATA Safety Leadership Charter was developed in consultation with IATA members and the wider aviation community. Its aim is to support industry executives in evolving a positive safety culture within their organizations around eight leadership principles.

• Reinforcing safety through both words and actions.
• Fostering safety awareness among employees, the leadership team, and the board.
• Guiding the integration of safety into business strategies, processes, and performance
measures.
• Creating the internal capacity to proactively manage safety and collectively achieve
organizational safety goals.
• Creating an atmosphere of trust, where all employees feel responsible for safety and are
encouraged and expected to report safety-related information.
• Establishing a working environment in which clear expectations of acceptable and
unacceptable behaviors are communicated and understood.
• Creating an environment where all employees feel responsibility for safety.
• Regularly assessing and improving an organizational Safety Culture.

2 73 CEOs Commit to the IATA Safety Leadership Charter, Strengthening Global Safety Culture
IATA aims to support the industry in continuously improving safety performance with a three-pillar
strategy consisting of:

• Safety Leadership (including both safety leadership and culture),
• Safety Risk (identifying and mitigating risks through data collection and analysis from audits,
accident reports, and other sources)
• Safety Connect (providing the links so that safety leaders report, discuss, and resolve safety
issues).