Travel Safety Update.

For more safety & security news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Jun 12, 2006

Lawmakers reject effort to nullify FAA controller contract. The House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a proposal to nullify a contract imposed on air traffic controllers by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA imposed the contract Monday. The two sides negotiated for 10 months. Jun 8, 2006

IATA AGM formally approved a resolution making membership conditional on IATA Operational Safety Audit certification despite plenty of protest, mainly from African carriers, against the new prerequisite. Under the regulation, all new IATA members will be required to pass IOSA before they join while existing members must contract for an audit by year end and complete it by the end of 2007. "Safety is our number one priority," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani stressed. "Last year was the air transport industry's best year ever with an accident rate of 0.76 per million sectors--one accident for every 1.3 million flights. IATA members did considerably better at 0.35 per million sectors--one accident for every 2.9 million flights." Jun 7, 2006

FAA imposes contract proposal on controllers. The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday said it would start imposing its contract proposal on air traffic controllers. Talks broke down two months ago. The proposed contract would reduce pay for new controllers by 30%. Congress made no changes during a 60-day period for review, but a separate legislative proposal in the House of Representatives to push disputed areas of the contract to arbitration could be voted on as early as Tuesday. Jun 6, 2006

US FAA yesterday moved expeditiously to begin implementing a new contract for members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. following a 60-day mandatory Congressional review period that expired Monday. In a statement, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey noted "that the period for review has ended without modification of our proposal by Congress. Therefore, under the terms of our statute, the FAA's proposed change takes effect as of today, and we will begin the process of implementing our proposal." She added that the agency will carry out the transition "by operating under the former work rules and pay rules as we phase in the successor terms and conditions." Jun 6, 2006 Boeing

FAA may relax rules for jetliners with two engines. The Federal Aviation Administration may soon conclude that jetliners with two engines should have the same flexibility in long-distance flying as planes with three or four engines. Such a decision would benefit Boeing's 777, which currently must stay within 3 1/2 hours of an emergency landing strip. Jun 5, 2006

Boeing, Israel Aircraft

Israel Aircraft Industries said its Bedek Aviation division received an FAA STC for conversion of a 747-400 Combi into a pure freighter. The aircraft used for the certification process is owned by Guggenheim Aviation and will be operated by Air China. IAI said certification also was received from the Israeli CAA and certification from EASA and CAAC are expected shortly. Jun 6, 2006

IOSA

IOSA was launched in 2003 as the industry's first global standard for airline safety management and 189 member carriers and 57 nonmembers, representing more than 80% of scheduled international traffic, currently are in the IOSA process. Chile and Egypt incorporated IOSA into their safety oversight programs and the Arab Civil Aviation Commission recently passed a resolution urging its 16 member states to require IOSA registration for any carrier based in their territories or using their airports. Jun 7, 2006