Health and safety of our stakeholders

To confirm the highest level of flight safety, all of the Group’s activities are subject to numerous checks and certifications, in particular via the supervisory actions carried out by the Civil Aviation authorities in each country and via the International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose IOSA Operational Safety Audit is a benchmark within the industry. Air France’s IOSA certification was renewed in early 2021. IOSA audits were carried out between November and December 2022. The Air France and KLM IOSA certifications will be renewed in early 2023 following the on-site audit. 

Furthermore, the Flight Safety key performance indicators are scrutinized on an annual basis by the Group’s highest management body, the Air France-KLM Board of Directors.

This method enables proactive management of the risks to maintain them below the level that is deemed acceptable to the responsible management and monitored by the Corporate Safety Department thanks to the:

Air France and KLM are developing similar approaches aimed at steadily improving the quality of their results, based on a continuous improvement, and independent supervision of the four safety areas (in the workplace, security, environmental and operational). KLM is notably supported by its Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS), which is a leader in the industry.

Developing a safety-first culture

Everyone working in the Air France-KLM Group should feel confident and free to report mistakes and incidents, even caused by themselves. By embracing a just culture we learn, develop and improve on a permanent basis. This commitment to a just culture means a culture which is “neither unfairly punitive nor lenient”. It is deployed using the Just & Fair analytical tool, aimed at helping managers to take fair and equitable decisions, thereby encouraging a spirit of confidence and thus transparency.

Reinforcing the safety-first culture across all the operations is a progressive approach aimed at constantly raising the ambition of the Air France-KLM Group’s airlines.

In this context, we rely on three fundamental pillars, which are:

• Surveillance: we continuously assess the threat in order to put in place all the necessary additional protection measures, upstream or in response to an unexpected event.

• Compliance: we monitor, refresh and update the measures required by the authorities, within an international, European and national regulatory framework, while maintaining the quality loop inherent in the business processes.

• Monitoring: our security auditors check that the security risk has been taken into account – the regulatory and operational compliance of the measures applied, as well as the proper implementation of the additional necessary measures – within the organization of the out-stations organization, catering and cargo, but also within our subcontractors.

Food safety

The Air France-KLM Group is committed to guaranteeing high-quality food services that are safe for its customers and flight crews. The food safety management system is based on four processes:

• The first process is cross‑cutting and applies to the whole risk area: regulatory intelligence, risk analysis and definition of the measures to mitigate these risks, audits, staff training, establishment and updating of the reference standards, monitoring of the action plans, etc.

• The three other processes are operational and are specific to the different activities: on board services, water on board and services offered in the lounges.

Control over the risks linked to food safety are managed as follows:

• Caterers are audited at least once a year by an external company, specialized in food safety for inflight catering. Audits verify compliance with the QSAI Food Processing Safety and Food Processing Quality standards, based on the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) principles.

• E-audits are also conducted to verify the exhaustiveness and effectiveness of the traceability within all the caterers.

• In addition, all food product suppliers are referenced based on very strict specifications and are the subject of close microbiological monitoring, carried out by an in‑house ISO 17025‑accredited laboratory for KLM and by an external microbiological laboratory for Air France.