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AirTran Airways selected the AQD software package in 2001 to bring the airline
to a level where they can proactively implement their Safety Management System
and comply with today's stringent regulatory requirements. AirTran
operates a fleet of 141 airplanes (the world's largest Boeing 717 operator)
with 750 daily flights throughout the United States.
AirTran's Director of Corporate Safety, Mr Jean-Pierre Dagon (J.P.) is a well
known leader in the industry when it comes to safety. His presentation on
"SMS Integration - the Big Picture" at the FAA Shared Vision of Aviation Safety
Conference in San Diego in May 2008 showed his commitment to taking a leading
position on safety and risk management.
“AirTran Airways uses AQD as an integral part and key component of SMS:
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Foremost the Operational Quality Management process (or Internal
Evaluation Program) uses AQD to track, monitor, plan, and control all internal
operational audits, as well as station audits, performed by both Quality
Assurance and Safety.
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AQD allows you to track all ground damages/mishaps and take comprehensive
corrective actions as a result of trends, or systemic events which require a
systematic approach to them. The AQD Web interface enables us to
capture in-flight incidents/passenger-related events, and to document any
possible in-flight incidents.
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Finally AQD ties both pro-active safety management as well as re-active safety
management. A finding can be tied to both occurrences (events/incidents)
as well as audits. The big view (forest) can be captured both
pro-actively and re-actively. Most data bases act on only one side of the
equation. AQD enables us to "connect the dots" or "see the red-lining".
The desired goal of AirTran is to have a 'One Stop Shop' for analysis of
information whereby a single repository of information regarding Flight, Cabin,
Ground and Maintenance incident and occurrence reporting as well as Audit
and, soon, ASAP information can be collated and used effectively to expose
trends and hot spots, thus effectively creating a 'dashboard' which regroups
all data inputs for an effective Safety Management System.
Having the ability to view all the information available from a range of
different airline sources in one repository allows for the collection and
analysis of information to develop a solution. This is invaluable for
both the safety department and senior management to make informed decisions.
One example covered in the 'Shared Vision' presentation was that of ground
damage. By using AQD to capture ground occurrence reports, it was shown
that systemic events could be tracked, trends could be shown, and we could
analyze causal factors which directly impact on how we address the problem, and
where the problem should be addressed.
AQD's strength lies in its simplicity to uncover areas of concern by having
access to multiple reports from several sources; this allows AirTran to
identify training requirements which ultimately reduce costs by reducing
incidents and increase operational efficiencies."
Jean-Pierre Dagon (J.P.)
Director of Corporate Safety
AirTran Airways
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