Empire Airlines' Safety Management System Accepted by FAA

Empire Airlines, based at the Coeur d'Alene Airport in Hayden, ID, receives FAA formal acceptance of the airline's safety management system (SMS) at the conclusion of a two-and-a-half-year implementation project.

A new federal regulation requires all U.S. airlines to implement formal safety management systems on or before March 9, 2018. The safety management system centers on safety risk management as a proactive means of identifying and managing risk, ensuring that resources are best dedicated to appropriately managing and mitigating risk in operations.

Every employee in the company has received training in the safety management system, including principals of safety risk management and minimizing safety risk in daily activities.

The airline has also received FAA acceptance of its Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) program for all fleets of aircraft, which provides the airline the capability of monitoring hundreds of data parameters for every flight to ensure safety of operations.

Empire Airlines operates a fleet of 56 turboprop aircraft in fifteen western states under contract with FedEx Express and Hawaiian Airlines.