Qatar Airways first airline in the world to pass IATA safety audit

Qatar Airways is the first airline in the world to pass the new International Air Transport Associations (IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), passing with 100 per cent compliance.

"We have made history here at Qatar Airways," Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said.

"We are the first airline to be audited by the IOSA system, and have passed with a 100 per cent satisfactory record."

IOSA is a newly implemented internationally recognised system, set up to standardise and rationalise a number of safety and security audits carried out by individual airlines for code sharing purposes.

"The independent auditors from Aviation Quality Service GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany, were tremendously impressed by our high safety standards, and all the safety and security procedures that are in place."

"I had no doubt that Qatar Airways would pass the audit, and would set the standard for other airlines to follow. It is good to have proved to the world that our security and safety procedures are all meeting the highest standards."

"Qatar Airways is now automatically compliant with both the US air safety regulations (FAA) and European air safety regulations (JAROPS), and is able to join in code sharing agreements with other airlines around the world, without having to undergo a further audit."

"We were audited on our flight and ground operations, aircraft engineering and maintenance, operational security, cabin operations, and corporate organization and management systems. The audit took five days, before the 100 per cent pass was announced for all areas."

"Qatar Airways has all the ingredients to be attractive to other airlines for code shares and alliances, and having proved to the world that we have exceptionally efficient safety standards, just adds to our attraction."

"Qatar Airways is currently code sharing with six airlines in Europe and the Far East and is considering further code shares in order to increase our number of destinations served." Mr. Al Baker added.

IATA brings together close to 280 airlines worldwide, with flights by these airlines comprising over 95 per cent of all international schedules air traffic. All the airlines will have to undergo the new IOSA audit within the next two years.

Qatar Airways currently serves 42 destinations throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and is hoping to extend its route network to 50 destinations by the end of 2003. The airline recently signed an agreement with Airbus for an order of 34 aircraft in a US$5.1 billion deal, part of a plan to increase its fleet to 56 by 2008.