They inspected all safety measures taken by SAUDIA for its daily operations, including ground facilities such as air and ground operations, aircraft maintenance hangars, Prince Sultan Aviation Academy and aviation services as well as other airline facilities that required safety auditing.

The team also met with Eng. Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Director General of SAUDIA, senior executives of the organization and heads of companies and strategic units in charge of the airline’s operations.

Captain Mohammed Motab, VP Safety and Quality, said the team from the French company Quali-Audit was assigned by IATA to complete the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) to renew operational safety certificates.

Airlines have to comply with a series of international safety standards and conditions to get IOSA certification and this is one of the conditions for an airline to maintain its IATA membership. In some countries IOSA certification is required for an airline to get license for regular operation.