When SMS Conforms to Customer’s Needs

Private air charter businesses are taking off like rockets. Their customers like it and there is less hassle, pressure, and time limits than catching a scheduled flight. Anyone can travel from coast to coast at a cost equal to or less than scheduled airline tickets cost. Ther is no holdover time for the charter since they are picking up new passengers upon arrival. When it is time to go back home, a charter aircraft is ready for you to take you there. Service is great, security is great, and the flying experience is a pleasure nobody could imagine just a few years ago. 

Convenience and time savings are benefits that are often considered priceless in our modern, busy world, and flying private offers both in spades. When flying on a private aircraft, the flight leaves when the customer is ready. Easily avoid the hassles of busy airports with a private charter and set your own schedule instead of being required to work around the schedule of a commercial airliner. As the number of budget commercial carriers increases, if your destination is not a hub then the choices are limited and restrictive. The overall travel time with a private jet service is significantly lower than commercial airline travel time and a customer can enjoy planeside valet parking and step aboard as soon as they arrive.

Flying privately makes the most of valuable time by providing the privacy and convenience to hold business meetings, work efficiently, or relax before arriving a t destination. Private jet charter operators are able to fly into smaller airports that often are closer to planned meeting, or recreation destinations. Flexibility increases with private charter services, as well, because itinerary changes can be made last minute or even mid-flight in some cases, should an urgent need arise. One-way flights further boost the time savings by offering quick options for short-notice meetings or spontaneous getaways.

Feeling comfortable when traveling is of high priority, and it is also what frequently motivates the decision to fly first class or business class. Private jet services are substantially more customizable to perfectly suit an individual’s comfort and preferences. For instance, by choosing the type, size, and onboard amenities of an aircraft, customers are able to tailor their experience to the exact needs they and their passengers have. When they arrive at one of the private fixed-base operators, they will find private lounges offering complimentary refreshments and personal care to rest and freshen up. A customer can count on superior service from start to finish, with crew focusing exclusively on their needs and the needs of their guests.

A private aircraft charter travel offers a superior travel experience, with the possibilities of requesting such personalized amenities like catering, entertainment media, reading publications, even specific designer fragrances. If a special occasion is celebrated, they can coordinate with the operator ahead of time to have the plane decorated according to your theme. Fill the plane with balloons or other décor to start a vacation off in the most memorable way. Receive made-to-order catering or special food choices delivered to you ahead of time to enjoy while on the flight, and relish in the privacy of traveling only with whom the customers are comfortable. 

Peace of mind is another invaluable perk of flying private. On a customized chartered trip, a customer can feel free to continue confidential business meetings, hold personal conversations, and entirely stay out of the public eye while traveling. Utilizing the in-flight Wi-Fi, customers are able to host video conferences from inside the plane with people back at the office or even hold a presentation with laptop slides or whiteboards and presentation decks. There are no limits to productivity to fly privately, as there would be on a commercial flight. The benefit for companies to be able to continue their work and enhance their productivity while en route to the destination will far outweigh the potential additional cost. There will not be any lost luggage or lengthy security check procedures and lines to endure, drastically reducing both wasted time and stress. 

The pace of modern life requires airplane travel, sometimes involving multiple flights in a single day, and so it is important to choose wisely. Human nature is for daily activities to be enhanced by experiences, and the way we travel matters. Meeting business deadlines, spending more time at home, and enjoying daily activities with less overall stress are all benefits of choosing to fly privately instead of commercial. With considerable benefits, private jet charter services can help customers truly enjoy their time spent in the air.

Private aircraft charters are not regulated by the safety management system (SMS) in the same way as scheduled commercial flights are. One condition for airlines, and also for airports, are to maintain their SMS in good standing. Airlines and airports are required to design a regulatory conforming safety policy, regulatory conforming processes for setting goals, and attainment of those goals, regulatory conforming processes for identifying hazards, regulatory conforming processes for training of personnel, regulatory conforming processes for reporting and analyzing hazards, incidents and accidents, a regulatory conforming SMS manual, a regulatory conforming quality assurance program, a regulatory conforming process for audits, review for cause, or change management, and any additional requirements prescribed by the regulations. Regulatory compliance might not always be practical to comply with and might not be tailored to customers or be customer friendly, and it is incumbent on the operator to design compliance processes. With a regulatory SMS, both airlines and airports need to design additional processes that are user friendly and customer friendly, and where these processes are linked to one or more regulatory requirements. Regulatory requirements compliance is found in manuals and other documents, while process compliance, or practical compliance are found in the work being done. There is no conflict between regulatory compliance and practical compliance, but this requires airports and airlines to design practical compliance processes, in addition to the written text compliance. A private air charter without an SMS requirement can skip the SMS regulatory conforming requirement and focus on customer friendly processes to conform to maintain operational, and regulatory conforming processes. 

When operating when a regulatory required SMS, there is also a practical compliance gap. The practical compliance gap is the gap between compliance in a static environment, such as at the time of issuance of an operating certificate, or prior to any flight duty tasks, and upon completion of a process, e.g. a flight crew complete their flight, or upon an airport complete repainting runway markings. It is impractical for an SMS enterprise to operate without the practical compliance gap. 

Both an SMS enterprise, and private charter operator are required to appoint an accountable executive (AE), to be responsible on behalf of the certificate holder (CH) to comply with regulatory requirements. The regulator must be notified by naming the AE. The AE position is not a liability position, which still rests with the CH, but is an overarching oversight position of operations and level of compliance. It is the AE who must answer to the regulatory, or the public, when there are regulatory findings, or operational issues. Accountability is not just at the top management level but exists at all levels in the organization. Accountability is forward-looking accountability where everyone is accountable to their own job description, accountable to the intent, or expectation of their job performance, accountable to acceptable work practices, and they are accountable to aviation safety. 

A private aircraft charter organization, which is not required to operate with a safety management system, is required to appoint an accountable executive, Their AE is accountable for regulatory compliance as required for their operations. However, they may voluntarily choose to integrate the principles of SMS regulation in their organization. Prior to SMS regulations, private charter operators had customer service principles in place to ensure safety. The thought behind the principle was when everything is done through a customer’s eye, their flight will arrive safety without any major deviations or high-risk experiences. 

Private air charters apply these SMS principles in their operations. They operate with a safety policy, processes for setting goals, and for measuring the attainment of those goals, processes for identifying hazards and managing risks,  to aviation safety and for evaluating and managing the associated risks, processes for training of personnel to be exceptional to perform their duties, processes for reporting and analyzing of hazards, incidents and accidents, and for taking corrective actions, they operate with multiple manuals for making personnel aware of their responsibilities, they have a quality assurance program in place, they conduct periodic reviews and audits, and they include any additional requirements to adhere to the principles of a safety management system with an overarching customer friendly framework. 

Their safety policy conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, is a policy where safety is paramount. Regulatory compliance is a priority, but safety is paramount. Regulatory compliance is subjective, while paramount is objective. A safety policy that is paramount is a policy with a purpose, it is a practical policy that personnel comprehend, it is a vision of the future and a vision of where the organization is headed. Safety is paramount when operational processes are linked to the SMS policy. A paramount system is a system that is predominant, it is a reliable system, it is a system with integrity, it is a system that is fluid and flexible, and it is a system where personnel work in a just-culture environment. A just-culture environment is a place there is trust, learning, accountability, and information sharing.  

Their goal setting process conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, is a process where a private operator has conducted research of human factors and what triggers the most pleasant air travel experiences. 

Their process for identifying hazards conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, is a process where hazards are analyzed, and lessons learned applied. 

Their process for training personnel conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, is a process where technical knowledge is superior and flight crew, and other organizational personnel are trained in recognizing human factors and their sensitivity to any of the five senses, eyesight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. A training process includes any personal requirements for their customers. Aircraft and aircraft manufacturer are also selected based how aircraft design triggers any of the five senses. 

Their process for reporting hazards, incidents and accidents conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, is a process where organizational personnel report any occurrences that affected their job performance. 

Their manuals are readily available electronically and userfriendly for storage and retrieval of information. Their process conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting and designed with guidance for any person to easily navigate through the manual. 

Their quality assurance program conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting, and is a program where, in addition to ongoing regulatory compliance audits, there is ongoing quality assurance audits of customer’s satisfaction. 

Their ongoing review of operations, and review for cause, and change management, conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting. Every review is viewed through the eyes of their customer. 

They operate with any other requirements as required to conform to what customers needs and what they are expecting. These processes are tailored to personal needs, their customers business needs, or their customers family and friends needs travelling. 

When looking at their operations through their customer’s five senses, they establish an environment where their customer’s experiences may be affected by common cause variations, and opportunities for special cause variations are reduced to acceptable risk levels. Customers are made familiar with common cause variations, such as airborne turbulence, and they are comfortable seated in superior chairs.   

  
  
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