Management Summary

Abstract

The aviation industry faces a variety of risks. For this reason, risk management is self-evident in this industry. But the aviation industry also faces a greater density of regulations concerning risk management than other industries. For example, the implementation of internal control systems (ICS) and safety management systems (SMS) are often required depending on specific activities, complexity and size of the company. The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) decision to require aviation organizations to adopt safety management systems (SMS) has clearly focused attention on the concept of SMS. These requirements for safety and risk management represent a huge problem, especially for small and medium sized aviation companies because the majority is not able to appropriately deal with the subject in order to gain advantages. The different systems are interrelated and should be linked to the culture of companies. In fact, aviation companies need to have risk management as a core competence if they want to operate according to regulations and remain sustainable in the market.