Towards Airlines IT Audit Challenges & Success Factors: A Systematic Review.
Keywords:
Information technology, IT systems, IT infrastructure, IT Audit, Airline IT Audit, Success factors, Airline industryAbstract
Examining the field of Information Technology (IT) audit in the airline industry, the methodical investigation seeks to uncover elements contributing to success as well as obstacles. The importance of this study stems from the crucial role of IT systems in ensuring efficiency, safety, and customer satisfaction in the rapidly expanding aviation industry. The study begins with a brief overview of IT auditing in the aviation business, revealing details about audit methods and kinds. Given the critical role that IT systems play in aiding airline operations, a thorough examination of their audit processes becomes necessary. The systematic review encompasses a comprehensive examination of 61 prior articles, offering an in-depth look at the current state of knowledge on this topic. The following sections describe the research methods employed in conducting the systematic review, including the methodology and criteria used for selecting and interpreting the literature. This sets the stage for the findings to be presented and thoroughly discussed. Throughout this process, a special emphasis is placed on explaining the obstacles encountered during IT audits in the aviation industry and identifying the key elements that contribute to their effectiveness. In addition to providing a comprehensive review of the current literature, the study offers valuable insights into the challenges that IT audits face in the aviation industry, as well as the key success factors required to overcome these issues. The results synthesis aims to inspire future research topics and provide practical applications for IT audit experts working in the ever-changing and technologically complex aviation sector. This systematic evaluation, therefore, provides a comprehensive reference for knowledge, addressing and improving IT audit processes in airline operations.
References
. A Brief Discussion of Audit Risks and Their Causes. Proceedings of Business and Economic Studies. (2023). 6. 98-103. 10.26689/pbes.v6i6.5880.
. S. M. Powell, "Conducting a Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) during Aeromedical Evacuation (AE) En Route Care Operations – Developing a Model for LOSA within a Patient Care Setting." Order No. 28492995, Central Michigan University, United States -- Michigan, 2021.
. A. A. Elmarady and K. Rahouma, "Studying Cybersecurity in Civil Aviation, Including Developing and Applying Aviation Cybersecurity Risk Assessment," in IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 143997-144016, 2021, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3121230.
. Bondik, O. (2021). FLIGHT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ADAPTATION TO FUNCTIONING IN INCOMPLETE INFORMATION CONDITIONS. Proceedings of National Aviation University, 86(1).
. Berrada, H., El Ghazi El Houssaïni, S., & Boutahar, J. (2023). Implementing information technology risk management: A case study in the African airline industry. J. Organ. Technol. Entrep, 1(1), 58-76.
. Foley, M. (2023). NEBRASKA AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. Pat.
. Ter Hoeven, R., & Roosjen, Y. (2021). Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on disclosures in passenger airlines’ financial statements. Maandblad voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie, 95(11/12), 397-411.
. Wang, Z. (2021). Understanding the strategy used by leading airlines: a case study of Qatar Airways.
. Ishtiaq, S., & Abd Rahman, N. A. (2021, September). Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Defence Techniques in Aviation Industry. In 3rd International Conference on Integrated Intelligent Computing Communication & Security (ICIIC 2021) (pp. 559-567). Atlantis Press.
. Rajee Olaganathan, D., Miller, M., & Mrusek, B. M. (2020). Managing safety risks in airline maintenance outsourcing. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 7(1), 7.
. Never, J., & Suau-Sanchez, P. (2020). Challenging the interline and codeshare legacy: Drivers and barriers for airline adoption of airport facilitated inter-airline network connectivity schemes. Research in Transportation Economics, 79, 100736.
. Botha, L. M., & Wilkinson, N. (2020). A framework for the evaluation of the perceived value added by internal auditing. Meditari Accountancy Research, 28(3), 413-434.
. Inioluwa Deborah Raji, Andrew Smart, Rebecca N. White, Margaret Mitchell, Timnit Gebru, Ben Hutchinson, Jamila Smith-Loud, Daniel Theron, and Parker Barnes. 2020. Closing the AI
accountability gap: defining an end-to-end framework for internal algorithmic auditing. In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 33–44. https://doi.org/10.1145/3351095.3372873.
. Ban, H.-J.; Kim, H.-S. Understanding Customer Experience and Satisfaction through Airline Passengers’ Online Review. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4066. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154066
. Ah, A. V., & United States Government Accountability Office. (2019). US Airlines: Information on DOTs Oversight of and Stakeholders Perspectives on Foreign Ownership.
. B. R. Aditya, R. Ferdiana and S. S. Kusumawardani, "Requirement and Potential for Modernizing IT Risk Universe in IT Audit Plan," 2018 2nd International Conference on Informatics and Computational Sciences (ICICoS), Semarang, Indonesia, 2018, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/ICICOS.2018.8621808.
. Moe, H. Z. (2018). A study on Airworthiness Requirements of Myanmar Aviation Industries (Doctoral dissertation, MERAL Portal).
. LEELAPEERAPHUN, M. S., & Thavornyutikarn, S. (2017). The application of Becker model on internal audit in aircraft maintenance (Doctoral dissertation, Thammasat University).
. Kolesár, J., Melníková, L., Heralová, D., & Daňko, P. (2016). Methodology of the auditing measures to civil airport security and protection. MAD-Magazine of Aviation Development, 4(20), 38-44.
. Millet, "Airlines Vulnerabilities to a Cyber-Attack and the Potential Consequences." Order No. 1599148, Utica College, United States -- New York, 2015.
. Ukwandu E, Ben-Farah MA, Hindy H, Bures M, Atkinson R, Tachtatzis C, Andonovic I, Bellekens X. Cyber-Security Challenges in Aviation Industry: A Review of Current and Future Trends. Information. 2022; 13(3):146. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13030146.
. M. Imran, S. Hamid and M. A. Ismail, "Advancing Process Audits with Process Mining: A Systematic Review of Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 68340-68357, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3292117.
. Yang, C., & Wu, J. M. (2021). Research on Audit Risk of Transportation Industry--from the Perspective of Key Audit Matters.
. Kalemba, N. & Campa-Planas, F. (2019). Safety and the Economic and Financial Performance in the Airline Industry: Is there any relationship? Aviation, 23(1), 7-14. doi: 10.3846/aviation.2019.9744.
. N. Kagalwalla and P. P. Churi, "Cybersecurity in Aviation : An Intrinsic Review," 2019 5th International Conference on Computing, Communication, Control and Automation (ICCUBEA), Pune, India, 2019, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICCUBEA47591.2019.9128483.
. Hajjar, B., & Kaitouni, O. D. (2018). Success Factors for developing Air cargo in African Markets. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (pp. 2450-2461).
. Festus Femi, Asamu and Olubukola Otekunrin, Adegbola and Joseph Falaye, Adebanjo, Impacts of Internal Control on Financial Performance on Nigerian Airline Industry (A Case Study of Airline in Ilorin, Kwara State) (September 19, 2019). International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology 10(3), 2019, pp. 1078-1096, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3456478.
. R. Khoshkhoo, A. Jahangirian, and F. Sharafbafi, “Analysis of fleet type impact on the threats and errors of an airline using Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA),” Aviation, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 31-39, Aug. 2018.J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68–73.
. Parveen, K., Akbar, W., & Hanif, K. (2020). HR Policies Appraisal for the Airline Industry of Pakistan Using a Mixed-Method Approach. International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies, 11(15), 11A15D-1.
. LaJeunesse, A., Bradley, K. P., Flinn, P. J., & Crafa, W. A. (2018). Copa Airlines: Study of Non-compliance Causes Based on Audit Findings.
. Tan, C. C. (2018). The analysis of agency cost within state-ownership structures of the airline industries: Direct state-owned companies and indirect state-owned companies (ownership via sovereign wealth fund).
. Matthew J. Beck,John M. Rose,Rico Merkert,Exploring Perceived Safety, Privacy, and Distrust on Air Travel Choice in the Context of Differing Passenger Screening Procedures, Journal Article, 2018. Journal of Travel Research.(doi:10.1177/0047287517700316).
. B. R. Aditya, R. Ferdiana and P. I. Santosa, "Toward Modern IT Audit- Current Issues and Literature Review," 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2018, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICSTC.2018.8528627.
. S. A. P. Kumar and B. Xu, "Vulnerability Assessment for Security in Aviation Cyber-Physical Systems," 2017 IEEE 4th International Conference on Cyber Security and Cloud Computing (CSCloud), New York, NY, USA, 2017, pp. 145-150, doi: 10.1109/CSCloud.2017.17.
. P. TEOH, K. Y. LEE, and R. MUTHUVELOO, “The Impact of Enterprise Risk Management, Strategic Agility, and Quality of Internal Audit Function on Firm Performance,” IRMM, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 222–229, 2017.
. J. Meeûs, W. Dewulf and R. Macário, "Management Systems in Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities to Upgrade to an Integrated Management System," Sustainability, vol. 15, (13), pp.
, 2023. Available: https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/management-systems-aviation-challenges/docview/2836504657/se-2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310424.
. Dave, G., Choudhary, G., Sihag, V., You, I., & Choo, K. K. R. (2022). Cyber security challenges in aviation communication, navigation, and surveillance. Computers & Security, 112, 102516.
. Delmo, K., & Chaidaroon, S. (2019). 12 Managing media sensationalism in the event of an airline disaster.
. Khodurska, M. (2020). Methods and tools to ensure information security in aviation enterprises.
. Latorella, K. A., & Prabhu, P. V. (2017). A review of human errors in aviation maintenance and inspection. Human Error in Aviation, 521-549.
. HUI, Y. Q. (2022). DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A FLIGHT OPERATOR SAFETY AUDIT SYSTEM (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Sains Malaysia).
. Qin, T. (2020, September). Elevating Value Marketing Strategies in Singapore Airlines Driven by Macro and Micro Environment. In The 3rd International Conference on Economy, Management and Entrepreneurship (ICOEME 2020) (pp. 271-279). Atlantis Press.
. Kaspers, S., Karanikas, N., Roelen, A., Piric, S., & Boer, R. J. D. (2019). How does aviation industry measure safety performance? Current practice and limitations. International Journal of Aviation Management, 4(3), 224-245.
. Davis, J. C. (2017). Mobility Air Force Aircrew Flight Training Requirements Validation through the Use of Line Oriented Safety Audit Data.
. Sundresan, Kauthami & Mat Yusoff, Siti & Mohamed Sadom, Nur Zulaikha. (2023). Navigating Few Ethical Challenges in the Airline Industry: A Qualitative Investigation.
. M. N. Aleksandrov, S. V. Aleksandrova, and V. A. Vasiliev, "Development, Implementation, and Certification of a New Generation of Quality Management Systems for Organizations of the Aviation and Space Industries," 2022 International Conference on Quality Management, Transport and Information Security, Information Technologies (IT&QM&IS), Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, 2022, pp. 62-65, doi: 10.1109/ITQMIS56172.2022.9976783.
. Tang, A. C. (2021). A review on cybersecurity vulnerabilities for urban air mobility. In AIAA Scitech 2021 Forum (p. 0773).
. Puspita, A. D., Juliardi, D., & Putri, D. M. (2020). The Effect of Solvability, Company Growth, and Income Management on Going Concern Audit Opinions. International Journal of Accounting & Finance in Asia Pasific (IJAFAP), 3(3), 50-57.
. Khoshkhoo, R. (2018). Adaptation of Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) to Dispatch Operations (DOSA). Journal of Airline and Airport Management, 7(2), 126-135.
. Muhammad-Azfar Abdullah, Boon-Cheong Chew, Syaiful-Rizal Hamid,Benchmarking Key Success Factors for the Future Green Airline Industry, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences,Volume 224,2016,Pages 246-253,ISSN 1877 0428,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.456.
. Paidisetty, M. K., Singh, S., Prakash, O., & Kumar, V. S. (2025). Unified Technical Surveillance and Auditing Method for Global Aviation Regulations. Journal of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies, 48-63.
. Palmer, V. (2025). Systematic Literature Review on Insider Threat: Is the Australian Aviation Industry Complacent or Just Not Understanding Insider Threat? Journal of the Air Transport Research Society, 100060.
. Ekström, E. (2025). CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES TO AIRLINES A LITERATURE REVIEW OF RISK & COMPLIANCE.
. Ekström, E. (2025). CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES TO AIRLINES A LITERATURE REVIEW OF RISK & COMPLIANCE.
. Dela Peña, A. (2025). Aviation Cybersecurity through Blockchain: A Technology-Driven Framework for Secure Information Systems. Available at SSRN 5294484.
. Chien, C.-W., Liou, J.-H., & Huang, S.-W. (2025). Identifying and Mapping Challenges of Industrial-to-Aviation Transformation Through Aczel–Alsina and Grey DEMATEL-ISM Analysis. Applied Sciences, 15(11), 6242. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15116242.
. Moghadasnian, Seyyedabdolhojjat & Azarhoush, Azadeh. (2024). Enhancing Airline Safety Management: Strategic Insights into KPI-Driven Oversight.
. Alghamdi, S., Daim, T., & Alzahrani, S. (2024). Technology assessment for cybersecurity organizational readiness: case of airlines sector and electronic payment. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71, 7701-7718.
. Mizrak, F., & Akkartal, G. R. (2024). Prioritizing cybersecurity initiatives in aviation: A dematel-QSFS methodology. Heliyon, 10(16).
. Florido-Benítez, L. (2024). The types of hackers and cyberattacks in the aviation industry. Journal of Transportation Security, 17(1), 13.
. Savin, J. (2025). IT Auditing: The Practitioner's Guide to Reliable Information Automation. Taylor & Francis.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Advanced Technologies Journal of University of Benghazi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright©2024 University of Benghazi.
This.open.Access.article.is Distributed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licens
