Flight safety is a subject attracting real public interest these days, and Lauda Air is proud of the committed and internationally active experts who operate its Flight Safety Department. The department’s mission is to increase flight safety through prevention and to exclude risk factors as a result. Our slogan is: “Safety is our Business!” We’re by no means the only people with a role in this process, however: individual passengers can also make a huge personal contribution to flight safety. Do you strap yourself into your seat properly on the aircraft, for instance, and observe the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign when it’s lit? Do you really know the position of the nearest emergency exit? Could you put on a lifejacket if you had to? What exactly is concealed behind the “Escape Path Marking” sign? And do you always observe the ban on smoking…?

The purpose of the department is to be available to management and employees in an advisory capacity with the aim of recognising and dealing with risk factors as early as possible before developing and implementing avoidance strategies. Flight safety is a dynamic field of specialisation – factors that may have happened years ago and often been completely forgotten can have a real influence upon the course of a flight way the future. In such cases, it is necessary to collect information and to recognise trends on a continual basis.

One of the most important responsibilities of the department is to collect data and analyse trends, as well as distribute information throughout the company. Finally, quality assurance is a key component in reducing risk factors and thereby increasing flight safety. We are also responsible for the supervision of medical equipment, in close cooperation with the airline’s medical service. Thanks to the strong support of our cabin personnel, our medical equipment and procedures have been broadly optimised over recent months, so that a faultless range of medical equipment is now available to every passenger on top of the standard first aid kit. Last but not least, we work with specialist services to offer advice related to various queries ranging from the movement of dangerous cargo to the transportation of immobile passengers.

By participating regularly in international conferences, our specialists guarantee an abundant exchange of experience and knowledge. A subject such as flight safety does not recognise commercial boundaries.

The initial prerequisite is many years’ professional experience in a flight operation environment, ideally as a pilot or flight attendant. Following a selection process that looks at your specialist, social and administrative skills, training takes place during special courses, frequently held abroad.

In a highly competitive situation such as the present, an airline can only hope to be successful in the long term if it enjoys the unlimited trust of its customers. What is the use of an especially low fare, smiling in-flight personnel or a meal from a top chef, for instance, if passengers doubt the safety of the aircraft itself? That’s why Lauda Air assigns its pilots to the flight simulator for twice as long as required under law – because flight safety guarantees the company’s future, and that’s more rather than less true during phases of recession. The working environment and diversity of the job enable departmental employees to develop freely and take forward their own, often highly specific, expert knowledge. It’s not technology that makes flight operation safe – it’s the employees behind that technology. If you have any concrete questions on flight safety, either at Lauda Air or in general, please contact Dr. Dieter Reisinger, Lauda Air Flight Safety, (e-mail: ReisingerD@laudaair.com).