How IATA Supports Risk-Based Safety Management in Aviation Operations

In today’s complex and high-pressure aviation environment, organizations are increasingly focused on building resilient, risk-based safety systems that go beyond compliance.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is helping lead this shift by offering tools, guidance, and insights that enable a more structured and proactive approach to Safety Management Systems (SMS).

As part of their work to support more than 300 airline members worldwide, IATA promotes a range of solutions—including Bowtie Suite—to strengthen operational risk management. To explore how this works in practice, we spoke with Matthew Lillywhite, Senior Manager Safety Risk at IATA, about their approach to safety management, the value of bowties in daily operations, and how organizations can build a stronger safety culture from the inside out.

The Role of Bowtie in SMS

One of the persistent challenges in implementing SMS is turning broad risk statements into practical, actionable insights. Bowtie helps solve this problem by making risk visible and structured—linking hazards to controls, and supporting discussions that help clarify who is responsible for what. What makes bowtie so useful is that it scales with the organization’s needs.

Whether used as a foundation for building risk awareness in newer teams or to refine and challenge established assumptions in mature systems, bowtie provides a common language that facilitates risk-based decision-making.

For a deeper look at how IATA, with the help of Bowtie Suite, is improving operational risk awareness, read the full Part 1 of IATA’s expert insight series.

Bowties and Audits

Frequent audits and quality assurance are conducted to ensure airlines meet national and international regulations. However, this can feel like an overwhelming task.  

Matthew explains how IATA applies bowtie methodology in multiple ways:

• First, bowties help clarify safety issues by highlighting the connection between their audit results and the relevant standard. This aids organizations in understanding key risks better and enables more effective prioritization of risk management strategies.

• Second, using their IOSA audit program to ensure compliance. Risk controls are directly mapped to bowties. This connection helps aviation organizations better evaluate the effectiveness of their SMS. By using IATA’s risk-based IOSA approach, companies can allocate resources to the most critical checks.

• Finally, bowties also support IATA’s internal quality assurance by performing an independent internal check on the IOSA program itself. This ensures the program continues to meet its objectives and maintain its high standards; essentially, auditing the auditors.

Want to learn how bowties can improve your audits? Fill out the form to download Part 2.