財務績效對飛航安全影響關聯架構之建立

A Framework for Analyzing Impact of Financial Performance on Airline Safety

雖然以往許多學者皆抱持著財務惡化對飛航安全會有負面影響之懷疑，但研究結果均難以獲得一致且具說服力的結論，此一現象或可由不同財務水準下航空公司對飛安投入資源的變化，以及各項資源變動對飛安水準之影響二主要觀點來加以分析說明。因此，本研究提出一財務績效與飛航安全之關聯架構，首先由釐清財務與飛安關係之概念架構著手，接著分析不同財務狀況下航空公司資源投入變化之可能情境，再運用失誤樹理論之分析架構探討資源投入對飛航安全之影響，以徹底釐清財務狀況對飛航安全之影響。經由此一分析架構之推論，航空公司財務狀況與資源投入間並無絕對正向影響關係，惟面臨財務虧損時，航空公司會有減少資源投入之可能，尤其是當財務狀況嚴重惡化時，其更具有飛安上高度潛在風險。此外，增加飛安相關資源的投入，理應能達到提升飛安的效果，但並非唯一法則，各措施間的相互配合與資源有效分配亦是影響航空公司飛航安全之關鍵因素，所以用心改善飛安管理機制，亦有可能使總資源投入減少但飛安績效反而提高。

Many researchers thought the financial distress would make a negativeinfluence on flight safety, but their studies couldn't get a consistent andpersuasive conclusion. This can be attributed to two key unclarified points ofthe impact of financial performance on airline safety. One is how the safetyrelated inputs are varied with airline different financial conditions. The otheris how the safety level is changed with the available resources. In thisresearch, a framework for analyzing impact of financial performance on airlinesafety is proposed. The contents and potential risks of airline dailyoperational programs are therefore clarified first. Fault tree analysis is thenapplied to establish the relationship between resource inputs and defensivesafety functions. Finally, the employment of safety related resources undervarious financial conditions and the associated potential safety impacts areanalyzed. The inferences from this research show that there is on inflexiblerelationship between financial performance and safety. However, there existspossibility that airlines may incline to reduce the safety inputs and thus runthe risk of being unsafe under financial deficit, especially in seriousfinancial straits. Besides, increasing the safety related resources can helppromote safety although it's not the only way. Well coordinating all defensivefunctions and efficiently allocating resources are also the key factors that cancontribute substantially to airline safety. Therefore, the safety level canpossibly be raised even with the reduced inputs if the airline is diligent inimproving its safety system.