GAO-05-930 Aviation Safety: Oversight of Foreign Code-Share Safety Program Should Be Strengthened

GAO-05-40 Aviation Safety: FAA Needs to Strengthen the Management of Its Designee Programs

GAO-05-726 Aviation Safety: System Safety Approach Needs Further Integration into FAA's Oversight of Airlines

U.S. airlines are increasingly relying on code-share partnerships with foreign carriers to provide additional sources of revenue. Code-sharing is a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline & sells & issues tickets for that flight. To determine whether the foreign code-share partners of U.S. airlines meet an acceptable level of safety, the Dept. of Transportation established the Code-Share Safety Program, which requires U.S. airlines to conduct safety audits of their foreign code-share partners as a condition of code-share authorization. This report assessed the fed. government's efforts to provide reasonable assurance of safety & security on foreign code-share flights. Charts & tables.