Flexjet has achieved active conformance with the FAA's safety management system. In earning this designation Flexjet says it has become one of only 1% of the nation's private jet providers to do so.

Already a safety requirement for commercial airlines this safety management system (SMS) conformance is voluntary for Part 135 private aviation providers.

“Flexjet has been an active participant in this voluntary safety management system programme for many years,” says chief safety officer Charles Starkowsky. “Safety has always been a fundamental business practice for us, and we have taken pride in operating within a sound safety culture.”

The FAA describes SMS as “the formal, top-down, organisation-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls.” It described Flexjet's conformance as a significant accomplishment in implementing a fully functional SMS that is accepted by the state in accordance with international requirements.

The safety management system is made up of four components: safety policy, where the company documents its safety standards and develops procedures needed to implement that policy; safety risk management, where the company identifies hazards and puts into place risk controls to either eliminate those hazards or mitigate them to an acceptable level; safety assurance, where the company regularly reviews its risk controls to make sure they are effective; and safety promotion, where the company communicates the safety objectives throughout the organisation and shares results of the system to help build a positive safety culture.