Alexandria, VA, January 7, 2009 — The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) is pleased to announce the achievement of a significant milestone in the process toward full industry-wide deployment of the foundation’s Industry Audit Standard. During December 2008, two air charter operators and a shared ownership operator were included in a beta test of the audit program.
The ACSF Industry Audit Standard (IAS), announced last year, is a revolutionary program built from the ground up to set the standard for the independent evaluation of an air charter operator’s and/or shared ownership company’s safety and regulatory compliance, and incorporates Safety Management System (SMS) evaluation.
ACSF, along with trained and accredited auditors, conducted three separate audits. One charter company was a mid-size operator in the Northeast and the other was a large operator in the Southwest. The shared ownership company was also an operator in the Southwest. Although the final results of the evaluations are on-going, ACSF expects to issue formal announcements recognizing these three operators as the first ACSF-Evaluated, Registered Operators.
“These audits not only validated the compliance and safety program implementation progress of the operators, but also demonstrated the success of the IAS as an effective measurement tool,” explained ACSF President James K. Coyne.
Importantly, key Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials observed the conduct of two audits and indicated their satisfaction with the ability of the IAS to assure standardization and consistency with the FAA’s voluntary SMS implementation guidance.
“ACSF has made an extensive investment to create a comprehensive audit where both operators and their customers can be assured of process integrity and transparency. The outcome of these beta audits validates our procedures, and I look forward to a full launch of the program later this month,” Coyne concluded.
ACSF anticipates accepting operator requests to schedule an IAS review beginning in late January.
Learn more about the ACSF IAS at acsfdev.com/audit.