Positive Safety Culture

Building safer aviation through trust and learning

about psc

Positive Safety Culture is a foundation of aviation safety and a prerequisite for effective Safety Management Systems. IFALPA’s Positive Safety Culture (PSC) Campaign addresses the conditions that determine whether safety reporting, learning, and risk management function as intended, recognising that technical compliance alone is insufficient in complex, highly interconnected aviation systems.

Grounded in pilot experience and informed by our Member Associations, the campaign focuses on building trust, consistency, and accountability. Through coordinated engagement at the national, regional, and international levels, including at ICAO, IFALPA and our partners are working to build an aviation industry where Positive Safety Culture is clearly defined, consistently applied, and supported by systems that encourage reporting and learning without fear of inappropriate consequences.

Four Pillars of Activity

Empowering our Members

Providing Member Associations with common frameworks, practical tools, and advocacy guidance to advance PSC within their national and organizational contexts, while accounting for differing levels of maturity and local constraints.

Strengthening ICAO SARPs

Encouraging the further recognition of Positive Safety Culture within ICAO Standards, Recommended Practices, and development guidance material to build the international framework necessary for consistent local and national implementation.

Engaging with Regulators

Encouraging regulatory and State practices that reinforce trust, fairness, and appropriate use of safety information in line with ICAO Annex 19.

Working with the Industry

Encouraging observable leadership behaviours that model and reinforce Positive Safety Culture, through collaboration with industry partners and leadership engagement that connects safety policy with frontline operational reality.

Cooperative Leadership on Positive Safety Culture

IFALPA works in close cooperation with partner international organizations, and aircraft manufacturers to advance a shared understanding of Positive Safety Culture as a critical foundation for safe operations. These organizations share a strong alignment that safety culture must be addressed consistently across all safety‑critical areas of the aviation industry, from design and regulation to operations and oversight.

Through this collaborative approach, IFALPA contributes pilot operational insight to joint efforts that reinforce trust, encourage effective reporting and learning, and support the application of safety management principles in practice. This alignment across international organizations, industry, and manufacturers strengthens system‑wide safety outcomes.

Latest Publications

December 11, 2024