World Best Airlines

Adria Airways, the airline of Slovenia, has a 47-year tradition. Our flight network connects Ljubljana with more than 25 European cities and offers excellent connections to Southeast Europe. We are a regional member of Star Alliance.The aviation industry has built into its operations many back-up safety features, and this is an everyday part of life at Adria Airways. These are:* a culture of safety;* consistent adherence to regulations and standards;* formation of the safety team;* regular crew evaluation;* double and treble back-up components on aircraft;* strictly regulated crew working hours;* observing differences between airports;* technological advances for managing crowded skies;* controlling human error in the cockpit;* maintaining aircraft for safe flights.Culture of safetyIn any airline the basis of all operations is the culture of safety. This means that all employees (from the CEO down) – and not just the flight crew – must be focused primarily on how their work will contribute to safe flying. The culture of safety indicates that everyone at Adria Airways is aware when we do our work of the importance of every last detail that ensures the safe operation of our aircraft.Regulations and standardsThe culture of safety is the foundation, and built onto this are the numerous standards and regulations that lay down the organisation of the company, operating procedures and flight safety. Each airline operates in line with the laws of its country, but it must also operate in line with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the European Union.In addition to this, Adria Airways was one of the first airlines in the world to receive the IOSA safety certificate (IATA Operational Safety Audit) regarding all the technical regulations, and an ISO standards certificate that determines the quality of company management.Safety teamEvery airline has a group of people dealing specifically with safety. Smaller airlines usually assign just one person to this task, but Adria, despite being ranked as a smaller airline, has a team of four pilots who supply recommendations and requests to management.The job of our safety team is to oversee the system of reporting unexpected and irregular events. The procedure is very simple and is based on anonymity.If a pilot or anyone else in the crew makes a professional error, they must document the circumstances in which the error was made and explain the possible cause. The airline guarantees that there will be no disciplinary sanctions resulting from this. In this way we encourage real reporting of errors. On the basis of these reports from crews, the safety team formulates recommendations for changes and submits them to the CEO. Aircraft maintenance personnel have a similar system.The airline must also report certain events that are set out in European regulations, such as engine failure, to the Civil Aviation Authority.And why is it so important for these events to be so faithfully recorded (added to which, airlines share this information with each other)?Such events are incidents that could in certain circumstances affect safety, so the crew must be prepared for them.One of the safety team members is also assigned to scrutinise the system of flight data monitoring. This system is very similar to the black box, recording approximately 150 different pieces of data during the flight. After each flight the data are processed by an expert who examines them for variances. If for instance he determined that pilots were landing at higher or lower speeds than recommended, he would write up a recommendation for immediate training of all crews.Regular crew evaluationEvery six months pilots undergo simulator training for emergency procedures such as engine failure, fire in an engine, smoke in the cabin, loss of cabin pressure and so forth. In addition to this, at least once a year they must undergo what is termed Line Oriented Flight Training, where they perform a one-hour simulated flight from pre-flight check to landing.The simulated flights are carried out so that they are as similar as possible to a real flight with specific malfunctions or other problems. In this situation the instructor plays the part of air traffic controller, flight attendant and mechanic.