Michaela Tirpáková

This article aims to identify the main trends of safety research in relation to different transportation modes (aviation, rail, road, and ship) based on the chosen methods, emphasizing the same and different features in the research topics. In the context of the main goal, quantitative content analysis was chosen, which identified the trends and domains of safety research, and text-mining software Leximancer was used for processing concept maps and reports showing semantic structures. The article found that the dominant topics in all modes of transportation are safety issues, mostly related to incidents/accidents. All modes of transportation have similarities in research (e.g., management, safety, and legislation are discussed), but differences regarding the specific operation prevail. The article emphasizes what trends in safety research dominate and how they differ. It has also been proven that, even though it is safety research, security issues can also appear because the two concepts form an indivisible complex in many ways.

Risk management and safety are often-mentioned topics that dominate, especially in this period. The Safety Management System (SMS) is based on risk management, the implementation of which is required in air transport as well as in other modes of transportation. The fact is that the safety of passengers and staff is a priority for every airline, and such individuals are exposed to some common groups of risks. Risk identification is vital in successful risk management as only identified risks can be managed. Based on a study of published frameworks and standards, a risk identification methodology was designed using a prompt list of a logically arranged list of risks concerning typical aviation activities and the specific environment in which the methodology operates. The prompt list was compiled based on a context analysis, which focused on internal and external contexts and on which the structure of the prompt list was based so that risks could be moved from the list to a risk register for further processing based on various criteria. The list contains risks from several areas (economic, ecologic, social, individual, business, marketing, etc.). The design of the prompt list itself also includes a proposal for a methodology for its compilation, use, and updating.

The year 2020 was very challenging for the whole world, given the outbreak of the ongoing coronavirus-related pandemic, and was marked in particular by overcoming new hitherto unknown obstacles. For air transport, in particular, airlines stopped flying altogether and were forced to ground hundreds of planes worldwide involuntarily. Airports had to close their terminals for a long time, wholly suspend operations, and its resumption required significant organizational changes. This article summarizes the measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic adopted by airports to minimize the risk of spreading the disease. The article focuses on countermeasures and their implementation at selected airports in a specific time frame and airports’ behavior during a pandemic which varies depending on country and time of the year. The results demonstrated that steps being taken at airports include the use of face coverings or masks, social distance, enhanced cleaning and disinfection, or temperature checks and/or symptoms (fever, loss of smell, chills, cough, shortness of breath), RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) screening and data collection with health declaration. These measures have now become an essential standard for the operation of airports and can, therefore, be used to assess the level of airport safety achieved. In the final phase, the article evaluates the level of achieved airport safety based on the proposed scoring method.

The article aims to support the Safety Management System’s implementation in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries by introducing supporting documentation at the national level or national legislation. The research subjects are the V4 countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia), where 39 air carriers operate. Safety management in today’s world is already necessary, yet introducing a Safety Management System (SMS) is voluntary in many areas, including some transport modes. In air transport, it is mandatory, and the general principles and guidelines of this system are set out in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which has issued several regulations and recommendations. The lists of ICAO standards and essential translations can be considered a minimum, which is also approached by different authorities. The article points out the primary differences in SMS in individual V4 countries and presents which country provides the strongest support in implementing this system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on air transport in various parts of the world. The impact of the pandemic has been and still is significant within the Member States of the European Union. The introduction focused on identifying and monitoring the pandemic spread in the individual Member States. The research focused on two periods that were compared with each other based on key indicators, i.e., reproduction rate, hospitalized patients, or ICU patients. Identification and monitoring of the above-mentioned periods were performed by an observational study of collected data mentioned below. Subsequently, an algorithm was proposed, which was to determine an index number of a given country based on key indicators mentioned earlier. The index number is an assessment of the pandemic situation in a given country. The index number calculation in the monitored periods divided the countries into two groups: countries with the index number higher than one and countries with the index number lower than one. The latter can continue using air transport by pandemic situation assessment conducted by the algorithm. The air transport utilization rate depends on the second part of the algorithm, where the allowed number of routes is calculated for individual airlines. The use of an algorithm for calculating the index number of individual countries and at the same time monitoring the development of key indicators every 14 days is a suitable method for ensuring the sustainable use of air transport to minimize financial losses.