The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF), a non-profit entity established by industry leaders to promote safety among FAR Part 135 charter operators and 91(k) shared ownership managers, introduced its Industry Audit Standard (IAS) in 2009. The IAS was developed at the request of and with the input and guidance of leading charter operators, shared aircraft ownership managers and charter consumers.

The ultimate goal of the Industry Audit Standard was to enable charter operators and shared ownership management companies to complete one comprehensive audit to a single industry standard on a recurrent basis. In addition, IAS Registration satisfied the ICAO SMS mandate that charter operators have effective Safety Management Systems in place. More information on the IAS can be found at www.acsf.aero/audit.

For many years after the IAS program was initiated, R Dixon Speas Associates conducted more registration audits than any other audit company accredited by the ACSF. RDSA audited about two-thirds of the operators listed in the IAS Audit Registry. In addition, RDSA management was actively involved in the development of the IAS audit process and in the periodic enhancement of that process.

In addition to conducting IAS Registration Audits, RDSA assisted operators to develop and implement the policies, processes and procedures they needed to meet IAS requirements. To avoid conflicts of interest, RDSA did not conduct IAS Registration audits of operators that it had assisted to become Industry Audit Standard compliant.