What is ICAO Annex 19?
Annex 19 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation is ICAO's dedicated annex on safety management. First effective in 2013 and consolidated since, it brought safety management provisions that were previously spread across several annexes into one place.
It sets out Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) for how states manage safety at the national level and how they require their aviation service providers to implement safety management systems.
What it requires of states
Annex 19 requires each member state to establish a State Safety Programme (SSP) — the state-level equivalent of an SMS — to manage safety across its aviation system, set acceptable levels of safety performance, and oversee the SMS of the organisations it regulates.
What it means for operators and other providers
Through national regulations that implement Annex 19, aviation service providers are required to establish and maintain an SMS. That includes air operators, approved maintenance organisations, approved training organisations, certificated aerodromes, and others.
The SMS must cover the four components — safety policy and objectives, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion — and be appropriate to the size and complexity of the organisation.
Annex 19 and regional rules
Annex 19 is the international baseline; regional and national authorities turn it into binding law. In Europe, EASA implements it through rules such as Part-ORO, Part-145, Part-ORA, and the aerodrome regulation. The UK CAA, FAA, GCAA, and other authorities have their own implementing requirements.
Because the underlying framework is common, a well-designed SMS — and the software that runs it — can serve operators across multiple jurisdictions without being rebuilt for each one.