WSOC 2026 Speech

Ministers, women and gentlemen, associates: welcome to the IATA World Safety and Operations ConferenceIts a satisfaction to be in Istanbul, and I wish to start by thanking our host, Turkish Airlines, for the warm welcome.

Trkiye is an air travel powerhouse. International traveler departures have actually grown by almost 70%over the previous years, making this the worlds seventh-largest market by traveler departures. And Istanbul itself is among the worlds excellent worldwide centers.

That makes it a fitting location for the discussions we require to have today. Due to the fact that intricacy is where individuals, innovation, and requirements either collaborate or they dont.

Where we stand

Let me start with the numbers, since they inform 2 stories. The very first is among genuine accomplishment.

A years earlier, the market tape-recorded one deadly mishap for each 3.5 million flights. In 2025 it was one for every single 5.6 million. That development was made through international requirements, information, and cooperation.

The numbers likewise inform us there is more work to do. Regardless of the genuine development on making air travel more secure, in 2025 there were 394 onboard deaths. Each of those ways that, even with the high level of security at which we run, we need to work even more difficult to make flying even more secure.

The concern for us is: where does the next action modification in security come from? The response depends on taking a look at how 3 things collaborate:

They are essential parts of a security system.

Think about the runway. While runway mishaps are uncommon, they stay the most typical place for mishaps and events. Individuals, innovation, and requirements each play an important function.

Individuals offer the clearances to go into the runway, pilot the airplane, and handle the ground devices that share its area. Innovation provides everybody the very best possible situational exposure. And requirements assist the actions of everybody included. Separately, none depend on the job of keeping runways safe. Together, they are an effective system supporting runway security.

In unloading our conference style, Id like to take a look at these 3 crucial system parts and the obstacles that we need to attend to together.

Individuals

The style of this conference is Performance Through People. Thats due to the fact that individuals are the crucial enablers to make sure the system works as it should.

The continuous difficulty of allowing the very best in individuals is being worsened by demographics. For different factors we have a disproportionately a great deal of senior security specialists who will leave the market in the coming years. We will require to keep their knowledge and understanding as they move towards and into retirement.

Particularly, we have actually invested years developing something truly unusual: a favorable security culture in which individuals report their own mistakes, and errors end up being chances for everybody to gain from.

That culture was supported intentionally over several years and its important that, as one generation proceed, the next takes control of the mantle and constructs on what has actually preceded.

Ask yourself: in your company, who is passing that understanding on? Is mentoring somebodies task? Or does it take place by mishap, in the spaces?

That concern ends up being much more essential as a brand-new generation goes into air travel. They bring the benefit of being accustomed to working along with innovation and significantly, expert system.

They will definitely bring brand-new point of views on how innovation can enhance our market. Those abilities should be effectively incorporated with the functional, technical, and security proficiencies that air travel needs.

This is a chance. Understanding its advantages needs a frame of mind that stabilizes a gratitude for security principles with openness to alter.

Human instinct, judgment, and decision-making should develop along with brand-new tools, while preventing, at all expenses, the disintegration of abilities through overreliance on innovation. To be blunt: a security specialist who has actually just ever seen the output of a theoretical design need to understand when to question it in a live, vibrant operation.

And there is another pressure on our culture and capability to discover. A strong favorable security culture depends upon individuals wanting to report mistakes, threats, and near misses out on. That concept is shown in ICAOs Safety Management structure and offered legal force in Europe through Regulation( EU)376/2014s arrangements on security culture and incident reporting.

And when it is not followed, issues emerge. In the Netherlands, air traffic controllers were prosecuted following an event they had actually reported. The European Commission later on recorded that incident reporting fell seriously in the consequences. That experience assisted drive more powerful defenses and higher cooperation in between security and judicial authorities.

Back to the runway

Another essential factor to consider around the function of individuals in security is how we interact. Requirement phraseology is a foundation of security. Even in the extremely controlled air travel environment, over time little departures from basic practice can end up being regular that normalization of deviance as created by Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave.

Phraseology can get reduced since it feels effective and is well comprehended. Airports and air traffic control service are hectic, high pressured, and in time-sensitive environments where everybody is concentrated on keeping traffic moving. The basic core of the operation success is a methodical method. Numerous little discrepancies might trigger no damage. From the security point of view, our focus needs to constantly be on the one time that a little variance can contribute to a disastrous conclusion.

Discrepancies are not just pilot concerns or controller concerns. They are system concerns that deserve our complete attention.

That is why IATA, CANSO, and ACI introduced a Joint Runway Safety Initiative this year to catch precisely these type of early signals through Local Runway Safety Teams, before they amount to something even worse. And I am extremely delighted that Andrea Sack, SVP, Global Operations, CANSO is with us today to take that work forward.

Innovation

Innovation matters since it assists individuals make much better choices.

For years, air travel has actually ended up being much safer not by eliminating individuals from the system, however by providing much better details, much better tools, and a much better understanding of threat. That must stay our directing concept. The concern is not merely, Can this be automated? The more crucial concern is, Will it assist individuals run more securely and successfully?

The worth of innovation depends on the info it supplies. Much better info assists us determine danger previously, comprehend it more plainly, and act before an occurrence ends up being a mishap.

That is why information sharing has actually ended up being such an effective security tool. IATAs Turbulence Aware program got more than 65 million reports on turbulence from airplane this year. SafetyIS draws functional security information from 248 airline company factors, assisting to determine emerging dangers and patterns throughout the market. And IATA Connect unites 5,600 users from more than 600 companies to share details, experience, and finest practices.

The goal is the exact same in every case: see danger previously, share what we find out, and make much better choices.

Innovation alone is never ever enough. The air travel system need to stay durable when innovation is not available, abject, or supplies deceptive info.

The increase in GNSS disturbance shows why. Compared to 2023, reported jamming occasions increased by 67% in 2025, while reported GPS spoofing occurrences increased by 193%. Throughout a spoofing occasion, an airplane can get placing details that appears totally reliable however is, in reality, incorrect.

The lesson is not that GNSS has actually stopped working. The security and effectiveness advantages provided by GNSS have actually been transformational. Rather, it advises us that innovation need to constantly be supported by system durability. When GNSS info can not be trusted, security depends upon layered defenses: redundancy, treatments, training, and team judgment.

That provides us 3 helpful tests for any brand-new innovation:

With EASA, we introduced a GNSS Resilience Plan concentrated on much better tracking, avoidance, backup facilities, and civil-military coordination. ICAO has actually given that taken this work forward, condemning State-origin disturbance and developing a roadmap for action. The job now is application.

Due to the fact that determining a threat is just the primary step. The genuine test is whether we can turn insight into action and enhance the method we run.

Which brings me to international requirements.

Standards

In a number of our most significant security difficulties, the issue is not the lack of requirements. It is irregular application and oversight.

Once again, the numbers inform the story. In 2025, airline companies on the IOSA pc registry tape-recorded one mishap for every single 1.09 million flights. For non-IOSA operators, it was one mishap for each 0.39 million flights-about 2.79 times greater.

An audit alone does not describe that distinction. The space highlights the worth of a typical worldwide basic backed by efficient oversight. A travelers security ought to not depend upon where an airline company takes place to be based. That is the concept behind IOSA.

The very same reasoning uses at State level. A well-resourced and reliable USOAP serves each people. ICAO itself has actually recognized 2 barriers for 2026 to 2028: security oversight authorities without enough financing, and scarcities of certified technical workers.

Those are not abstract governance issues. They assist describe why a requirement composed in Montreal does not constantly end up being practice on a taxiway.

We can not close every resourcing space from this space. We can make much better usage of the oversight capability we have.

And there is development.

ICAO has actually accepted our suggestion that proof from its State security audits need to feed back into the standard-setting procedure. That will assist make sure that requirements show the threats States are really experiencing, which restricted oversight resources are directed towards the locations where they can make the best distinction.

The exact same concept drives risk-based IOSA, focusing audits on an airline companies real threat profile.

Risk-based IOSA is currently producing outcomes, with almost 14,000 findings and 6,000 observations recognized from January 2025 to today. That is oversight doing what it must: discovering weak points before they end up being mishaps.

Much better market oversight will just provide its finest if states are likewise complying with their global responsibilities. 2 locations require specific attention.

The very first is dispute zones. Civil air travel requires prompt, transparent and collaborated details about airspace threats. Operators can not make great choices without it. And, sadly, such details is frequently lacking.

The 2nd is mishap reporting. In between 2020 and 2024, just 52%of mishap reports were finished in line with State commitments under Annex 13. When a report is postponed, security lessons are postponed too. And when reliable details is missing out on, speculation fills the space.

In the spirit of a favorable security culture, I am not here to appoint blame. These are both major issues. And our goal ought to be to discover why states are not abiding by these important international requirements so that we can discover services.

A parallel program is that of doing something about it when requirements are no longer beneficial since of modifications in innovation, operations or guideline, we need to upgrade it or eliminate it. Excellent requirements progress with the market they serve.

Europes simplification program is welcome. Florian Guillermet, Executive Director, EASA is with us today, and I hope we can take that forward together.

The next action modification in security will not come just from composing more requirements. It will originate from ensuring the requirements we currently have actually are comprehended, carried out and managed regularly, all over.

Conclusion

Let me close where I started back to the runway. Consider a runway attack.

It can be avoided by a controller and pilot interacting plainly and operating in a culture where either can state reiterate without doubt. It can be avoided by innovation that finds an establishing dispute and signals somebody while there is still time to act. And it can be avoided by an airport constructed, run, and supervised to worldwide requirements.

Individuals. Innovation. Standards. Not 3 top priorities to pursue separately, however 3 parts of the exact same security system. When one is weak, the durability of the entire system is minimized.

Which is where the next action modification will originate from. Not from any among the 3 by itself, however from making all 3 work much better together.

Over the next 3 days, this space holds an amazing quantity of functional experience. Utilize it. Obstacle each other. Share what works and what doesnt. The sessions matter. So do the discussions in between them.

Our objective has actually not altered: absolutely no mishaps and no deaths.

I want you all an efficient and effective conference. Thank you.