Citation: Meeûs, J.; Dewulf, W.; Macário, R. Management Systems in Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities to Upgrade to an Integrated Management System. Sustainability 2023, 15, 10424. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su151310424 Academic Editor: Laura Eboli Received: 4 June 2023 Revised: 23 June 2023 Accepted: 30 June 2023 Published: 2 July 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Management Systems in Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities to Upgrade to an Integrated Management System Joeri Meeûs 1, * , Wouter Dewulf 1 and Rosário Macário 2 1 Faculty of Business and Economics, Department Transport and Regional Economics, University of Antwerp, 132000 Antwerp, Belgium; wouter.dewulf@uantwerpen.be 2 Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 11049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; rosariomacario@tecnico.ulisboa.pt * Correspondence: joerimeeus@hotmail.com Abstract: Airlines’ principal focus these days is on managing safety risks. However, multiple manage- ment systems are established individually to manage other risks without any form of interoperability to function as one integrated management system, to have a holistic view of the different risks in an or- ganisation. This study will review if an integrated management system can be developed by looking at the interoperability of existing management systems to define a common standard/language across all individual management systems, to work as one integrated system. A survey was developed and rolled out via aviation organisations towards airlines to capture the quantitative data on how manage- ment systems are implemented, as these data are currently unavailable. The main contribution of this article is that it provides an overview of how management systems are implemented within airlines today, how they work together, and where interoperability could be improved between different systems. This paper provides the primary outcome of the survey, an overview of the status of inter- operability between the different systems, and where interactions could be improved. Findings have shown that although different management systems are implemented, there needs to be a correlation to be able to work as an integrated system. Secondly, different management systems speak different risk languages with work against integration. Finally, large airlines with a fleet of over 50 aircraft have less integration between their different management systems. Besides the lack of regulations, IMS in aviation needs more research. This paper’s contribution lies here, as it provides an overview of which management systems are implemented in the aviation industry and if integration exists between those. Due to the limited research in this field, this paper, with the survey results, provides new insights into if and how interoperability exists between different systems in aviation. It also provides a unique insight into the different management systems airlines use. The results will be used in the following research phase to develop a concept for an integrated management system, one language, on which other management systems can be built. Keywords: management systems; integration; interoperability; risk 1. Introduction As of 2002, EASA Aviation regulations took effect for all European operators. A strong focus is added to the Management System of an airline, consisting of a safety pillar and a compliance monitoring pillar. It became clear that the requirements for safety were much more advanced than the compliance monitoring requirements. However, strangely enough, the regulator leaves it up to the operator on how and which risks must be assessed, leading to different methodologies used in the industry. No comparison can be made between operators. Looking at the Management Systems of an airline, limited standards are defined. If standards are defined, for example, in the safety pillar of the management system, in that case, there is no possibility to compare data or benchmark the different risks similarly. We Sustainability 2023, 15, 10424. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310424 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability