The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is bolstering its collaborative partnership with the Airport Services Association (ASA).

By strengthening ties, the organisations seek to improve ground handling safety and efficiency through standardisation, the promotion of safety data sharing, and collaborating on new approaches to enhance sector resilience.

According to IATA senior vice-president for operations, safety, and security Nick Careen: “Global standards make aviation safer, and ASA and its members have been pivotal in helping develop the IATA ground handling standards we rely on today. By sharing data, we will be able to support this vital activity with data-driven insights and decisions. Maximising the impact of data relies on broad contributions. We encourage ground handler participation to strengthen our collective insights.

For his part, ASA director-general Fabio Gamba remarked: “This partnership is a significant milestone that leverages the expertise of both IATA and ASA. By coordinating our approach, we will ensure more robust support for ground and cargo handling professionals worldwide. Our goal is to ensure that standards and best practices are in place that the entire industry can rely on”

Working together for progress

The collaboration will include the sharing of safety data between the involved parties. 

Through ASA’s Safety Incident Database and IATA’s Incident Data Exchange which is a part of IATA’s Global Aviation Data Management initiative), both organisations will share and analyse safety information to proactively address safety issues related to ground and cargo handling.

At the same time, ASA will continue to work with IATA in the development of industry best practices and standards related to ground and cargo handling, taking advantage of relevant data. 

In particular, this work will focus on key documents such as the IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM) and the IATA Airport Handling Manual (AHM), their adoption by the industry and reduction of variations.