Will Discuss Role Such Arrangements Play In Airline Safety
The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a two-day
symposium on the role that airline code-sharing arrangements play
in aviation safety. The event, chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah
A.P. Hersman, will be held on October 26-27 in Washington, DC.
Code-sharing is a marketing arrangement in which one airline
places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline,
then sells and issues tickets for that flight.
Recent NTSB investigations of accident flights operated under
code-sharing arrangements include the February 2009 accident near
Buffalo, New York, in which a Colgan Air flight was operated as
Continental Connection; a 2007 accident in Traverse City, Michigan,
in which a Pinnacle Airlines flight was operated as Northwest
Airlink; a 2007 accident in Cleveland, Ohio, in which a Shuttle
America flight was operated as Delta Connection; and a 2006
accident in Lexington, Kentucky, in which a Comair flight was
operated as Delta Connection.
Most airlines participate in some type of code-sharing
arrangement, either with domestic or international partners. More
than half of passenger enplanements in the U.S. this year are on
regional airlines, almost all of which are involved in code-sharing
arrangements.
"In the past twenty years, code-sharing arrangements have so
proliferated within commercial aviation that today the vast
majority of airlines are involved in what are often complex
business and operational arrangements." said NTSB Chairman Deborah
A.P. Hersman (pictured). "We have investigated many accidents in
which passengers bought tickets on a major carrier and flew all or
part of their trip on a different carrier - one that may have been
operating to different safety standards than the carrier that
issued the ticket. While all carriers are required to meet
minimum standards, a clearer picture and deeper understanding of
the best safety practices for code-sharing arrangements are the
goals of this symposium."
The symposium will be organized to elicit information on the
following three issue areas:
- Structures, practices, and oversight of domestic and
international code-sharing arrangements.
- Best practices regarding the sharing of safety information
between airlines and their code-sharing
- partners.
- The role that a major airline would have in the family disaster
assistance response for an accident involving a code-sharing
partner.
These areas will be explored through presentations from major
and regional airlines, industry organizations, and representatives
of the traveling public.
The symposium, "Airline Code-Sharing Arrangements and Their Role
in Aviation Safety" will be held at the NTSB Board Room and
Conference Center, located at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington,
DC. A detailed agenda will be released closer to the date of
the event.