As we began the new year, Commercial Aviation Safety was already making headlines.

Fortunately, this was for the exceptionally low number of fatal accidents which occurred in 2017. It is a fantastic achievement and shows hugely encouraging progress. Yet as I am fond of saying, we must never be complacent.

The industry continues strong growth in terms of the size of the world fleet and the volume of operations. We have to redouble our efforts if we want to keep the number of accidents at these all-time lows. There is no doubt in my mind that if we as an industry are to succeed in further enhancing Safety, we will need to further reinforce our efforts in sharing Safety information. 

This magazine is a major contribution in Airbus’ efforts to share Safety information with our operators and the industry. We first started publishing a dedicated Safety magazine in June 1995, with ‘Hangar Flying’. The reaction to this magazine confirmed to us that the people using our products on a daily basis do indeed have a thirst for quality technical information that helps them carry out their duties more safely, and with a deeper appreciation.

In 2004, we decided to change the name of our magazine to ‘Safety First’, to better reflect its Safety objective, and so to boost its distribution and readership. The first issue came off the press in January 2005, and since that time we have established it as a bi-annual publication, built up a library of 24 issues, and created 120 individual articles.  

But the world moves on, and we see that Safety First must move with it if we are to ensure our readership is not only maintained, but also continues to expand. This is why we recently sent out a short readers’ survey, collecting feedback and inputs on what changes would be of value to you. I would personally like to thank those of you who answered this survey, your help is very much appreciated.

Here are some of the key changes we will make that have been supported by your answers:  

Increased frequency: 86% of respondents confirmed that they would like to receive articles at a higher frequency, so that is exactly what we will do. We will start to publish individual articles every six weeks in various digital formats. The paper magazine will still be available every January and July. 

Article search: An overwhelming 96% of respondents replied that an article search feature would be useful. A new app is available this month organized around articles instead of magazine issues, and including a search engine feature. Smartphones will get their own dedicated apps, and later in 2018 there will be a Safety First website too. 

Article topics: Feedback on what articles the respondents would like more of clearly indicates a desire for more coverage of pilot knowledge & skills topics. Cabin safety is also requested by the Safety Officers who replied. We will take this into account in planning our stories, and you should expect to see some coming changes over the course of 2018.

So, having let you know how Safety First is moving forward, I leave you to move forward yourself, through the pages of edition #25!