As the business aviation world moves toward more widespread adoption of safety management systems (SMS), Aviation Manuals is seeing growing interest in its ARC SMS services. “It’s been a remarkable 18 months,” said Aviation Manuals CEO Mark Baier. “Flight departments are upping their game,” especially during the Covid pandemic when flying activities diminished and there was more time to work on SMS projects.
Now, Baier explained, “SMS is helping them assess what changes they need to implement.” This includes meeting requirements for European SAFA inspections, keeping flight crew current, and dealing with challenges imposed by Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“We’re seeing a real demand bump,” he said. Aviation Manuals grew 30 percent during 2021 and in the past 14 months has grown its staff by 25 percent as new subscribers reached 85 per month.
In addition to helping companies set up and run their SMS, Aviation Manuals also provides content-management services, which is its core capability. “We help them identify what they need to improve,” Baier said, “and then make that flows through into the way they’re operating.” This includes, for example, keeping operating manuals updated and sharing that information with all pertinent personnel. “It’s a continuous self-improvement loop,” he said, “an integrated process.”