Improving safety
Air transport has a high safety record. In the decade 1993 to 2003, accidents involving passenger fatalities on scheduled operations dropped continuously as did fatal accidents (EASA,2011). Between 2002 and 2011, Europe had one of the lowest air accident rates in the world with 1.6 fatal accidents per ten million flights. However, with passenger numbers set double and freight volumes to treble in the coming decades,air operations in Europe will become increasingly more complex. The challenge is to ensure that current safety standards, such as standards for airworthiness certification and safety assessment