Airport Safety Management

Risk Management System for Airport

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Introduction:
Risk management as we know it today has been one of the major concerns in industrial
environment to reduce vulnerability and chances of a hazard. All working environments are
associated with some sort of risks. The assessment of risk allows the organisations to understand
the susceptibility of the assets with regards to the operations of the organisations. The Risk
management is an integral part of managing operations and plays a vital role in the various
hazardous and dynamic environments. The Risk management allows the organisation to provide a
concrete framework that ensures the safety of the stakeholders and their investments.

The airline industry is one of the most diverse and complex industries and are engaged in one of
the most risky sectors of business. Risk management is extremely essential for the development
safe work practices and for reducing the chances of hazards. The airline industry operates within
stringent environments and a host of risks are related with its operation. The airline industry is not
involved in ferrying passengers and goods through airlines but involves a huge internally driven
risks, technological risks and resource oriented risks. These risks needs to be managed adequately
and therefore a proper risk management framework of system is essential.

This article will look into the risk management framework of an airline company that has started
operations with a fleet of second hand aircrafts, maintenance facility and passenger handling
facility. Before we understand the risk management system of the industries, we have to
understand the various aspects of risk management and the international guidelines of the risk
management frameworks that are in practice.

The nature of the airline industry:

The operations of the airline industry is extremely complicated. It involves a host of services that
expose the airline industry to various risks and hazards. The various risks and hazards that are
involved in any airline company. The risks are majorly generated due to the highly volatile nature
of the industry and the competitive environment often create challenges regarded to poor
infrastructure and the misguided regulations and various strategies that are chosen by the airline
companies expose them to various risks.
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Risk management in the airline industry:

A risk management system is essentially important for the addressing the hazards and exposure to
dangers in the operations. The study explains the nature of the risk management practices that are
generally put to use in the various airline companies. The risk management system normalizes the
hazardous situations and are associated with various operations. The effective risk management
practices encourage and drive safe practices that reduce the chances of risks or hazards.

The risk management system also identifies the various roles and interdependency among the
various departments of the airline company. The adoption of the risk management system also
provides an option for the development of new roles and identifies the role that each department
has to play in times of emergency or crisis. The comprehensive management of risks can only be
materialized through an effective risks management system that is implemented form time to time.

Risk Management system

Risk management has always been an integral part of business operations, the recent trends of risk
managements require integrated framework that that are designed to manage the complexity of the
operations. The diverse and dynamic operations of the airports and the airlines require precise
identification of hazards associated with the operations and therefore implement practices that
reduce the chances of hazards within the company. Risk management system and practices have
experienced an exemplar shift in their practices and applications. Risk management has now
evolved through various procedures and globally accepted framework are being designed to
standardize risk management. Industry specific risk management modules allow ore complete and
coherent and risk management. The airline industry has similar set of risk management
frameworks that are generally laid down by the ICAO Safety Management Manual Doc 9859,
which lays down the risk management procedures that are to be followed to implement risk
management practices.

The ICAO Safety Management Manual is one of the major manuals that lays down of the guidance
of safety management in the in the airline industry. The manual is designed to define the best
practices I every department of the airline industry. The manual takes into account the State Safety
Programme and the International Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). This manual
provides several annexures that describe the safety management guidelines in the various sections
of the issues with the Personnel Licensing, the Operation of Aircraft, the Airworthiness of Aircraft,
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safety related to Air Traffic Services, the most important Aircraft Accident and Incident
Investigation and guidelines related to Aerodromes, the volume also describe in detail about
Aerodrome Design and Operations and the safety practices that are designed. This manual provides
a systematic guideline for establishment of safety practices.

The safety management practices in the airline industry is designed to be activated after incidents
have occurred or taken place. The ICAO approach is technical document to address crisis situations.
The airlines are exposed to several risks and include fatigue related risks and hazards. The risk
management system allows identification of the hazards well before time and develop the basic system
that checks the hazards and risks in advance therefore reducing the risks in time. The major process
that re followed in any risk management system include the various aspects of risk or hazard
identification,

Spot the Hazard (Hazard Identification)

The most important aspect of risk management includes identification of the hazard. Hazard
identification is the first step towards the risk management. A hazard is any event that ca create
damage or harm. The several hazards that might occur during operation needs to be identified.
This identification of the risk is eliminates the chance of hazard or dangers. The hazard
identification is one of the major aspects of risk management system.

Assess the Risk (Risk Assessment)

The assessment of the risk is instrumental in the adequate management of risks. The exact
assessment of risk will also help to develop the best risk management framework. The risk
assessment is the next step in the risk management system. The risk assessment determines the
nature and the impact of the risk. The risk assessment also offers an exact idea of the vulnerability
that the organisation or the industry is exposed to. It gives an account of the amount of lose that
that one is exposed to. Thus risk assessment is an integral part of the risk management system. A
proper risk assessment framework reduces the chances of risks that the functioning industry is
exposed to. Risk assessment mainly involves two major attributes of the danger. The amount of
risk that is associated with the hazard and the seriousness of the risk in terms of the industry
operations and functionability.
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Making the Changes or the Risk Control

Risk control or the taking adequate steps to address the risk is the next step in the risk management
framework. The risk management system is incomplete without making the adequate changes with
response to the risk management. The risk control is the step that identifies the regulatory
framework of the risk management system. Making appropriate changes in the operations and the
functioning procedures implement the risk management system. Risk control identifies the
protocol and the safety practices that needs to be designed to mitigate the imminent risks. The risk
controlling mechanism will reduce the vulnerability or the hazards that the operations and facility
will be exposed to.

Conclusion:
The general person thinks about risk management as the avoidance of accidents or hazards.
However the complete risk management system involves the engagement of a regulatory
framework and implementation of a safety practice policy that complements risk management
system. A risk management system considers all the aspects the hazards and includes safety policy,
safety risk management and safety assurance. A complete safety management system involves the
various aspects of designing the safety policy, implementing the safety risk management
framework. The safety assurance is also one of the major aspects that determine the safety
management system in the airline industry.