Airspace Issue 3

AIRSPACE QUARTER 4 2008 1

journal of the civil air navigation services organisation ISSUE 03 QUARTER 4 2008

The Safety Issue:Illuminating the unknown

PLUS

John Chrichton, Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, Letter from America and much more from the world of ATM

Bill VossJob BrüggenSafety Management at DFS

RESPONDING TO THE CRISIS:

ATM seeks more efficient airspace


ATM NEWS

FEATURES

PEOPLE

TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONS

COMMENT

CONTENTS

civil air navigation services organisation

Airspace No. 3Published by CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation

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Editor: Chris Goater [email protected]

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The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright, full details of which are available from the publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publishers. The views and opinions in this publication are expressed by the authors in their personal capacity and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of CANSO and must not be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by CANSO of the products and services referred to herein.

Copyright CANSO 2008

5 EDITOR’S NOTE Black swans and unknown unknowns: welcome to the Airspace Safety issue.

8 THE CEO COLUMN John Chrichton on NAV CANADA’s Safety Management Systems and culture.

9 THE GUEST COLUMN Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, the President of ICAO, on two recent successes for ATM safety.

10-11 LETTER FROM AMERICA Our American correspondent ‘Thomas Paine’ sets out what the FAA needs to do to progress the NextGen programme.

6-7 THE LATEST INFORMATION ON CANSO’s historic Madeira statement, The Single European Sky II proposals, the revamped enviro.aero site and CANSO’s impact at ICAO.

12-13 ILLUMINATING THE UNKNOWN: CANSO’S IMAGINE 2010 SAFETY PROGRAMME In the last of our Imagine 2010 special issues, Airspace looks at ATM Safety, and the plans CANSO has to lead the safety agenda.

15 THE GLOBAL SAFETY SEMINAR We look forward to this year’s Seminar, in New Zealand on November 10-15th.

22-23 AFRICAN AIRSPACE: A NEW SAFETY ERA? Investigating the work of AviAssist.

16-17 BILL VOSS President and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation gives his views on the state of ATM safety and what needs to be done to improve it.

24-25 JOB BRÜGGEN The outgoing Chairman of the CANSO Safety Standing Committee reviews his time at the helm and his hopes for ATM safety in the future.

19-20 SAFETY MANAGEMENT ON THE RISE As CANSO prepares its own Safety Management System Standard, the expertise of its members becomes crucial. Here, Senior Consultant for Safety Management Hans de Jong explains the essential elements of the DFS SMS.

26-27 RESPONDING TO THE CRISIS: CANSO MEMBERS SEEK MORE EFFICIENT OPERATIONS The CANSO Madeira Statement has focused attention on the pressure to reduce fuel burn, for both environmental and cost advantage. A number of key projects are under way which will help ANSPs reduce fuel burn for their customers.

28-29 FOCUS ON… CURACAO A profile of CANSO’s newest member, and the first from Central/South America

30 WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO Information on joining CANSO and benefits to members

INSIDE CANSO

Cover image and image on page 16/17 copyright www.baa.com/photolibrary.

4 QUARTER 4 2008 AIRSPACE


I have been reading a book called ‘The Black Swan’ by an engaging Lebanese

mathematician-philosopher called Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Taleb’s main contention is that we live in a world subject to seismic shocks and

continual upheaval, in which the emergence of unpredictable “Black Swan’s”

can change the rules of everything we understand to be true (the discovery of

the black swan in Australia changed forever the assumption of Europeans that

swans had to be white). Taleb goes on to say that it is human nature to try to

quantify past behaviour so that we can predict future events, but that the evidence

shows time and again that this is at best futile and at worst downright dangerous.

We would be much better off adopting a mindset that accepts and looks to take

advantage of the unexpected.

I was struck by this when considering the challenge of aviation safety, which forms

the underlying theme of this issue of Airspace. Much of the current thinking on

safety is trying to move beyond the previous ‘analyse and predict’ model towards

a more fundamental concept of embedding safety in every aspect of the culture

of an ANSP.

By ridding ourselves of the assumptions of the past and trying to make safety our

automatic default position rather than a sequence of procedures to be adhered to,

we will succeed, in Taleb’s terms, in turning black swans into grey swans. Or, to look

at it another way, we will be looking for blue swans, purple swans, and multicoloured

swans – the whole myriad of possibilities that are in front of us in the realm of

airspace safety.

As ATM moves into the future, with new technologies and procedures, we can

expect to see a number of Safety “Black Swans”. But through the work of CANSO

and its members, which you can read about here, we can all feel confident that

ATM will be able to adapt, thrive, and make aviation even safer in the years to come.

Chris Goater

Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE


ATM NEWS

CANSO

CANSO ISSUES HISTORIC MADEIRA STATEMENT

CANSO’s 12th AGM and CEO Conference in Madeira, June, was notable for the release of a statement calling for all CANSO members to investigate ways to deliver fuel-efficiency improvements, as well as to review internal investment plans. The ‘Madeira Statement’ was issued in response to a request by IATA for industry partners to do more to assist airlines during a period of higher fuel costs, the ‘credit crunch’, and a falling off in demand. It was the first time CANSO members had authorised the organisation to issue such an announcement, and as such is a historic step for the Organisation. CANSO Secretary General Alexander ter Kuile made clear his support for the Statement, saying; “I believe that it is absolutely right for CANSO members to take the lead in responding to this crisis in the aviation industry. ATM can have a major effect on airline fuel costs through finding more fuel-efficient routes, and we will be working hard to implement best practice across the sector. We will also increase our calls for the institutional changes to be made which will help to reduce the problems caused by the fragmentation of ATM across the world.”

CANSO Chairman Ashley Smout (seen here giving the opening address at the 12th CANSO AGM and CEO conference) recommended the historic Madeira Statement to the members


ICAO

CANSO MAKES IMPACT AT ICAO

CANSO had a significant presence at the Conference on the Economics of Airports and Air Navigation Services (CEANS) in Montreal, September. As platinum sponsor, the CANSO standard was prominent outside the debate chamber, and the Association had prepared a number of exclusive publications for ICAO delegates. CANSO also made a number of key speeches and interventions in the debates. Secretary General Alexander ter Kuile’s presentation on ‘ATM Performance – your input determines the output’ explained to delegates what key levers they had at their disposal, and the best ways to operate them. CANSO ICAO representative Eugene Hoeven submitted five papers on the broad theme of improving air navigation performance. The papers were well received and Hoeven was delighted at their impact with the ICAO leadership. “I think the global voice of ATM has been clearly heard over the past two weeks,” he said, “and CANSO is firmly established as a credible stakeholder group in international civil aviation.”

Environment

REVAMPED ENVIRO.AERO WEBSITE GOES LIVE

www.enviro.aero the website of ATAG, the Air Transport Action Group, has undergone a complete revamp. The site, which went live last year, launched its redesign in September after nearly six months of consultation and testing. Early signs are encouraging; traffic to the site has doubled and the ‘stickiness’, measured by time spent and number of pages viewed, has increased. One of the most interesting new elements of the site is the blog, led by aviation industry insiders and drawing attention to the latest information concerning aviation and the environment. Over the coming months the size of the site is expected to increase, with the blog growing and a larger number of case studies, including contributions from the world’s ANSPs.

The Commission has proposed action in four areas:1. Performance2. Safety3. Technology4. Capacity

On Performance, package II suggests the setting up of a performance scheme based upon European targets and national/regional binding targets.

The Commission is also proposing to strengthen the network management function on airspace design, scarce resources and deployment of new technology.

For Safety, the Commission is proposing to extend EASA competency into areas such as aerodromes, ATM and air navigation.

Technological change falls under the SESAR Master Plan which has to be endorsed by the EU Council in November. The aim is to speed up technological innovation.

Finally, an airport capacity action plan has been endorsed to ensure better use of existing infrastructure, improved

planning, and better airport access. An Observatory will be set up to advise the Commission on the development and implementation of airport capacity.

The overall aim of these measures is to create a more sustainable and better performing aviation, and in particular ATM, sector in Europe.

During the summer, CANSO members deliberated on the Package II proposals and have produced a detailed response. CANSO’s Director of European Affairs Marie Desseaux said

“The main message is that the European ANSPs have welcomed the second package of SES; they consider it to be a good balance between the different interests and we are looking forward to an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council during the coming months. We have noted with satisfaction that the second package strengthens the performance framework while keeping the overall framework sufficiently stable. We have also pointed out the need to bring more clarity on some features, and are in the process of actively engaging with the Commission and Parliament to make progress.”

Europe

EU COMMISSION PUBLISHES SINGLE EUROPEAN SKY PACKAGE II PROPOSALS


COMMENT

In his new book, “Flirting with Disaster”, Marc Gerstein presents the following rules to live by for preventing and coping with accidents:

• Understand the risks you face.• Avoid being in denial.• Pay attention to weak signals and early warnings.• Do not subordinate the chance to avoid catastrophe to other considerations.• Don’t delay by waiting for absolute proof or permission to act.

These rules will be familiar to the readers of this magazine, for the simple reason that Air Navigation Service Providers were among the first in the world to build our organisations, around them.

As we all know, accidents and incidents do occur, and one of the best ways to prevent bad things from happening is to learn from past mistakes, which is something our sector has done extremely well over the years. The challenge we now face is to guard against complacency, by working hard to continually enhance our vigilance in our own operations and on a global basis with the assistance of bodies such as CANSO.

At NAV CANADA, for over a decade, we have worked with our employees to evolve our safety management system so that it is more than simply words on paper, but becomes a part of the way we think and act every day. Since 1996, over $1.2 billion has been invested in modernizing the Canadian ANS; conflict alert has been implemented in the en route phase of flight along with similar automated warning functions elsewhere in the system; and we have worked together with airlines and airport authorities to address and reduce safety-related events such as runway incursions.

While these and other initiatives have been implemented in the core operation, we have also integrated the principles of effective safety management into the conduct of Operations safety investigations, and in the planning and rollout of major changes to procedures, service levels, technology and organisational structures. As with many other ANSPs worldwide, we make it a priority to continually reinforce the basics of our safety culture and management system through the activities of our independent Office of Safety and Quality, in conjunction with our operational groups. Moreover, we make safety a business imperative since no aviation business can afford to have the public lose confidence in it, and we back that up with management incentive plans with a healthy component related to achieving meaningful safety goals.

At the same time, we are making solid progress in enhancing our reporting culture through a joint management/union effort to allow a broad range of incidents to be reported in a non-punitive environment, with an additional safety valve available through our confidential ARGUS safety reporting system. There has been a great deal of co-operation from unions representing our front line people, all of which is helping to ensure that weak signals and early warnings are heard and acted upon. We’re now in the process of extending this open sharing of safety data to our ongoing communication with customers, who also play a key role in safety management. The recent working group on pilot/controller communications – formed to address the issue of communication errors and non-standard phraseology – is a case in point.

Of particular importance as well is the work being done at the international level, through CANSO. NAV CANADA safety management staff are co-chairing CANSO workgroups for safety culture and safety metrics. In 2007, CANSO members adopted the IFR-IFR operating irregularities metric as an international standard. As well, NAV CANADA is very much involved in the CANSO work underway on safety metrics, best practices and SMS standards as set out in the Imagine 2010 programme outlined earlier this year.

The more all members of CANSO work together to share ideas and data, while learning from one another’s experience, the more value we will add to the management of safety worldwide. The ultimate promise is a world made safer for all who fly, through the global adoption of best practices in safety management.

The CEO columnJohn Crichton


COMMENT

Efficiency in the provision of air navigation services is fundamental to aviation safety.

In this issue of Airspace dedicated to safety, I would like to commend CANSO for its significant contribution in this area, and also draw attention to another success which owes a great deal to international cooperation such as that which CANSO works for.

The participation of your organization at the Conference on the Economics of Airports and Air Navigation Services (CEANS), held at ICAO this past September, was characterised by the provision of forward-looking and comprehensive input in the formulation of recommendations that will enhance cooperation in the air transport industry and increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the provision of air navigation services.

The recommendations will also make more authoritative in practice ICAO policies on charges – policies that regulate the relationship between ANSPs and airspace users.

In effect, enhanced cooperation suggested by the recommendations would strengthen policies on States’ economic oversight, requirements for the implementation of performance management systems by ANSPs and the establishment of a clearly defined, regular consultation process by ANSPs.

The recommendations call for States to enshrine the main principles of non-discrimination, cost-relatedness, transparency and consultation with users in their national legislation, regulations or policies as well as in all air services agreements between States. Also included are such areas as more flexibility for commercialized ANSPs in setting charges, support for separation of States’ regulatory responsibility from service provision, the application of good governance through best practices and the efficient and cost-effective implementation of the global Air Traffic Management (ATM) concept.

We all look forward to the recommendations being forwarded to the ICAO Council for consideration, with the expectation that an updated set of air transport policies would come into effect in December 2008.

Another recent advance for safety was the implementation of Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) in Africa. RVSM became a reality in all of the airspace above the Africa-Indian Ocean (AFI) Region on 25 September, resulting in more efficient flight operations and related benefits for airlines, passengers and the environment.

This latest step in the implementation of RVSM worldwide is yet another instance where aviation organisations brought their experience and expertise to bear, integrating major air traffic routes between Africa and other regions. With implementation of RVSM in the AFI Region, almost all major international traffic flows are now covered. This can strengthen the capability of air transport to play a part in the growth and economic development of Africa, by connecting the continent to the major marketplaces of the world.

Efficiency and cooperation go hand in hand in promoting aviation safety. We look forward to CANSO’s involvement in this global partnership.

The guest columnRoberto Kobeh González President of the Council of ICAO


COMMENT

A Plan for SuccessAutumn has begun here in the States; the heat of summer has been replaced by the excitement of our elections. Air traffic issues have fallen to a quiet, below-the-headlines issue. In the U.S. there will be no votes gained by politicians talking about air traffic control, so no strong policy statements or commitments to change are forthcoming from the candidates. On the positive side, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) has an opportunity to make plans on how they will prepare for the next administration. Additionally, the status of the world economy will temporarily reduce airline operations and provide a chance to make progress on the Next Generation Air Traffic Control System (Next Gen) while there is a respite in demand.

Since the challenge that the ATO faces today is as much political as it is technical, it is imperative that the FAA have a plan in place to show the incoming President how his administration can succeed in returning the air transportation system in the U.S. to one that will meet the current economic challenges and continue to be an engine generator for the gross domestic product.

In the U.S. there are a number of ideas and theories on how the FAA should proceed with its NextGen program and its transition plan. I thought that it would be interesting to review some of these in this column, so I have consolidated a number of the theories and ideas into what I think will be key to making the next four years fruitful for the FAA. As you read this, the Air Traffic Organization is planning their “transition book” for the incoming President. What you will read here are the ideas that, if they hope to be successful, will be in their plans.

Let’s start with metrics. The FAA needs a simple, easy way to show how the new system will be successful. It is important for the incoming leaders to be shown a method to measure NextGen in a way they can readily understand. Here is one set of measurements that have been making the rounds in Washington and could easily be adopted by the ATO:

1. Is the accident rate improving? 2. Are gate to gate travel times for city pairs decreasing? 3. Is individual runway utilization capacity increasing? 4. Are new runways being introduced where added capacity is needed? 5. Are the FAA unit costs of operations decreasing?

These five simple measures provide a particular assessment of safety, capacity, efficiency, environment, and system performance. If the answer to any of these five questions is “no”, full progress to NextGen is not happening.

The second dilemma for the ATO is the need to come to grips with the animus between the ATO and their union workforce. The rancor of the last contract negotiation with the current administration began long before the arrival of the COO Hank Krakowski. Without dealing with this issue there will never be an agreement on what the changing role of the air traffic controller in the new air traffic control system should be, or acceptance by the union of the need to consolidate and reduce the current number of air traffic facilities.

The CANSO columnLetter from America:


So how does the FAA regain a positive relationship with their employees? Here are the most likely approaches for the ATO to follow. Today the FAA carries the baggage of a complicated union contract that was legislatively forced on the controllers. It is clear to all who watched that the FAA “won” the negotiations, but instead of being magnanimous in their victory, the ATO chose to accentuate the union’s loss and set many restrictive personnel and economic policies that need to be revisited. Regardless of who wins the Presidency, the US Congress will have an increased Democratic majority. It will be a pro-union Congress and will want to correct what it sees as an unreasonable management approach in the current contract.

There is an opportunity here for the ATO to achieve a positive relationship with the union and Congress, before a change is mandated on them. The FAA needs to voluntarily work on a new equitable contract, to balance union desires with the needs of the Agency in order to get the workforce to support the changing role of the air traffic controller in the NextGen system.

Here are some of the ideas that I have heard:

• Currently there are 15,000 controllers in the US. No one foresees that there will be fewer than the current number in NextGen, but as the system brings about an increased capacity the goal is to not have more than the current number, so why not guarantee the union the current number as the base for the new system?

• The ATO must also start to plan how the new system will consolidate the number of air traffic centers and approach controls. The physical consolidations are at least a decade away, therefore most of today’s workforce can be guaranteed that they will not have to make any involuntary moves. They are an aging demographic hired in the 1980’s and are mandated to retire before the consolidation will take place. Newly hired controllers can be advised that they may have to move in the next 10 to 15 years. They will understand and accept this if it is a clear condition of their employment.

• Give the employees a meaningful role in the planning of the consolidations.

• Replace the current two-tiered pay system imposed on newly hired controllers. This pay inequality and the added burden of initial training costs required to be born by the new hires have caused them to be militant and angry at the FAA, It would be good to correct this condition soon so that management would be seen by the new Congress as being even-handed with the workforce and only doing the “right thing” when forced. Done well, the FAA can have a supportive workforce and a partner in meeting the challenging changes coming to air traffic control.

Another conundrum the FAA faces is the need to consolidate the Air Traffic Organization’s structure to link the NextGen programs with the air traffic operations side of the ATO. The operations side must “pull” needed changes and lead their implementation or there will be no actual improvement in the capacity of the system. Money will have been only spent on new technologies without the operational benefits of meaningful growth and efficiency.

Our last issue is cost. In the current economic crisis you can be assured that funding for ATC will be problematic starting in 2009 when the new administration proposes their first budget. If there is no case for improved capacity, efficiency and environmental progress over the four years of the next presidency funding will dry up and we will be left with half-completed technologies and few, if any, significant system gains. It is imperative that the new administration understand the need to support NextGen. The burden to do this belongs to the ATO and their success is not guaranteed. A transition plan is needed, one that is a success plan for the future.

‘Thomas Paine’


FEATURE

The CANSO Safety Programme:Illuminating the unknown

Sometimes, it is better to admit that there are things we know we don’t know, and even that there are things we don’t know we don’t know. When safety is being considered, these last two positions become ever-more crucial to the Safety Director attempting to make his system as secure as possible. The Safety Director and the safety community of an ANSP will already have significant knowledge and capability in understanding and managing safety, but the challenge for all Safety Directors is to know which part of the unknown needs to be illuminated to raise the level of capability. With each lesson learned, we benefit; and one of the strengths of CANSO is that other members can learn from the single experience without having to experience it themselves.

The maxim of considering ‘what we don’t know’ is particularly relevant to Air Traffic Management, which is facing a unique challenge as it moves towards the second decade of the 21st century. Procedures and safeguards built up over decades to ensure the safe passage of aircraft from one sector of airspace to the next are being questioned with increasing regularity. New technology, the need for greater capacity, and the growing need for environmental considerations to be taken into account are causing ANSPs to review every aspect of their operations and safety culture.

The first priority of any ANSP is to ensure the safe passage of aircraft through its airspace, and the track record of the industry shows a remarkable achievement of this objective, despite the huge growth in air travel over the past decades. But the continued success of the system cannot be guaranteed forever if the

same procedures are used. Airspace sectors cannot be subdivided indefinitely to accommodate growth. Aircraft are already being equipped with technology that will enable them to be considerably more autonomous. As airlines press to be allowed to adopt more efficient routes to conserve fuel, the need for new systems and procedures to accommodate these new technologies is increasing. This brings fundamental questions for the future of ATM safety, and CANSO and its members are at the forefront of preparing ANSPs for that future.

“CANSO has rightly made Safety one of its three leading programmes for the next few years,” says CANSO’s new Safety Manager, Richard Schofield, “and to be honest I am sure it will always be a major priority of the association and membership. I can’t ever foresee a time when ANSPs will be able to relax and think they have ‘cracked’ safety.” Schofield has been seconded by NATS to lead CANSO’s response to these Safety challenges, and he is well aware of the difficulties. “Safety can never be absolute, and we must always be on our guard for the unexpected.”

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” – Donald Rumsfeld

0

17.5

35.0

52.5

70.0

1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Average Hull Loss Accidents (source: Flight Safety Foundation)

Richard Schofield

Richard Schofield is CANSO’s Safety Manager. Richard is leading CANSO’s safety programme and is seconded on a 50% time basis from NATS,

Richard became an air traffic controller in 1989 and joined NATS in 2000. He has held a number of supervisory and management roles at airport and terminal control units. Since 2005 Richard has been based at the NATS Corporate and Technical Centre leading operational safety improvement activities and safety partnerships with customers and other ANSPs. “I am very pleased to be joining CANSO at the start of the Imagine 2010 Safety Programme” says Richard. “I am excited at the prospect of working with the CANSO safety community and looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead.”


management system standards, the promotion of best practice in safety culture and operational safety improvement .

Leading a number of workgroups and committees comprised of experts in ATM safety, Schofield and his team have set out a number of objectives over the next few years. The most important project – well under way and due to be completed by the middle of 2009 – is the CANSO Standard for ANSP Safety Management Systems (SMS). This standard promotes a phased implementation of SMS elements. This approach is based on the experience of CANSO members and draws on information promoted by ICAO. It is intended to be a planning and audit tool, a way of transforming safety culture, measurement and communication, and a means of increasing cost-effectiveness in safety training and mentoring.

At the global level, the SMS standard will compliment and support ICAO’s drive for the implementation of harmonised consistent and coherent safety management processes.

The second vital part of CANSO’s Safety work is the identification and dissemination of Safety Metrics. The CANSO Safety Metric workgroup, tasked with delivering these, is grouped into four workstreams: Loss of Separation; Runway Incursions; Safety Maturity; and Safety Culture. Globally, the maturity of the metrics in these different areas varies considerably. Achieving an agreement on metrics, and then arranging to share the results with the outside world, is a quantum leap for ANSPs, and a measure of how far they have managed to come through the CANSO process.

The achievement of an effective safety culture is recognised to be a vital element of achieving and maintaining satisfactory levels of safety performance. Schofield sees this as one of the most significant areas for development in the coming years, and is impressed with CANSO’s work in this field so far. Learning from mistakes is one thing, but there is a burgeoning body of material looking at embedding safety at a level that can anticipate any mistakes before they happen. This takes Safety Culture beyond

management systems, ingraining it in the behaviour and attitude of staff. Schofield is excited at the prospect of quantifying the best practices in Safety Culture and spreading them across the sector. “Establishing the correct safety culture is vital” he says, “but we must be careful not to think that once we have established a benchmark we must set it in stone. Safety Culture should be ever-evolving and to a certain extent must exist at a deeper level than in a manual or a computer programme. That’s especially important in our sector which is undergoing radical change, particularly with the introduction of new technology and procedures.”

And that technological change is giving ANSPs both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunities created by the new satellite-based surveillance will greatly increase the potential new capacity and efficiency in the system. It will also bring a sea-change in safety. In the past, the number of potential airspace incidents would increase in proportion with every new aircraft flying in that sector. With the new changes in technology and operations coming through, the potential for incidents can be de-coupled from traffic growth. But this tremendous opportunity brings with it considerable challenges. Most notably, who is responsible if Controllers are increasingly marginalised by the greater autonomy aircraft will possess when utilising the new systems? Another challenge is emerging in the shape of the management of unmanned aerial vehicles. With all these questions, it is the issue of accountability that keeps returning. Who is accountable for managing aircraft – the Controller, the Pilot, the Computer? How is accountability to be preserved in a Just Culture environment? How will CANSO members be judged, or held accountable, when their safety metrics are published? And accountability too, for CANSO. The members expect great things from its Safety work programme, and Richard Schofield and the Workgroups know that they have to deliver. An ATM Safety project is never finished – there will always be unknown unknowns out there – but, with its Imagine 2010 goals, at least CANSO is ensuring that we will all know a little more about safety in the future.

Imagine 2010 is CANSO’s response to the challenges facing ATM now and into the future. It is a work programme, a refocus, and a reorganisation. Unanimously endorsed by the CANSO membership in March 2008, the Imagine 2010 strategy reshapes CANSO to be the global voice of ATM, giving the organisation the resources to support a growing membership, across all regions of the world.

Fundamental to that support is the focus CANSO will give on three main policy priorities: Safety, Environment, and Business Transformation. With increased resources for the work programmes and communications, alongside a stronger secretariat boosted by some of the brightest and best seconded from its members, CANSO will deliver global leadership on these vital subjects, creating a stronger, safer, and greener ANS industry, able to respond swiftly and innovatively to the significant challenges facing the industry today.

Much of the Imagine 2010 work is concerned with setting global standards and benchmarks, endorsed by the leading ATM regulators, and supported by our industry peers and customers.

IMAGINE 2010

Schofield’s appointment is one of a number of high-profile additions to the CANSO Secretariat as it looks to implement the ‘Imagine 2010’ programme, unanimously endorsed by the membership in March 2008. One of the most important elements of the programme was the agreement to focus CANSO’s policy resources in three main areas – Safety, Environment, and Business Transformation, each with a series of key goals to attain by 2010. In line with the Imagine 2010 Safety Goals, and building on the exceptional work that CANSO has always been leading on ATM Safety, Schofield is bringing together a number of key work programmes under the vision of ‘defining the future of ATM safety’. These work programmes will help create a step-change in the measurement and dissemination of safety statistics, safety

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FEATURE

CANSO safety directors gear up for global safety seminar

CANSO’s Global Safety Seminar – one of the premier meetings in the CANSO year – will this year be held in Queenstown, New Zealand 10-14 November. This is the first Seminar to be held since the CANSO membership unanimously endorsed the Imagine 2010 programme, which embeds Safety as one of the three lead programmes for the next 3 years.

The Seminar has four key objectives (see box, right) and as always is about sharing knowledge and finding practical answers to real challenges. “This year our Global Safety Seminar is going to focus on how CANSO can deliver extraordinary results” says CANSO’s Director of Industry Affairs Samantha Sharif. “We’ve been given a boost in resources and with that comes a responsibility to deliver. So we will be working hard to ensure that the vision we have for CANSO’s Safety programmes becomes a reality.”

On day three the spotlight moves onto safety management systems, including the approval of a CANSO Standard for SMS and a safety maturity metric. Day four explores the importance of Safety Culture and the role of the Safety Manager. And finally the morning of day five evaluates the whole seminar, drawing together conclusions and results.

CANSO’s new Safety Manager Richard Schofield is keen to emphasise the fact that the event will be about much more than just listening and discussion. “There are decisions to be made during the seminar which are very important to the future of the safety programme” he says, “and it is also vital that momentum generated by the Imagine 2010 decisions earlier this year is maintained.”

The CANSO Global Safety Seminar has been established for nearly six years and brings together the leaders in ATM safety so its influence over the ATM safety agenda has grown steadily during that time. Previous meetings have been held in Canada, Thailand, Austria, South Africa and the USA, illustrating the

immense global scope of the participants and the strong interest shown by hosts from all over the world. Over the years, the focus has switched from establishing the potential for coordinated safety action, to auditing and methodology questions, performance measurement, reporting, and an SMS ‘Cookbook’ Communications, regional variations, and all manner of specialised topics have also been discussed.

With the Imagine 2010 programmes already under way, this year’s Seminar will be particularly important for CANSO Members and Associate Members to familiarise themselves with the Imagine 2010 Goals, shape the future objectives, and meet Richard Schofield and the rest of the team of Safety experts who have been seconded to work for CANSO. With nearly 50 delegates already registered, this year’s Seminar promises to be the biggest and most crucial yet.

With Safety higher than ever on the agenda, it is reassuring to know that the world’s ANSPs have got a firm vision for the future, and the will to cooperate to carry it out.

Safety is never far from the agenda of the world’s Air Navigation Service Providers, but with the trend for cross-border collaboration increasing, the need for Safety Directors to work together has never been more acute.

Objectives of the Sixth CANSO Global Safety Seminar:

1. Inform and provide direction to the CANSO Safety Standing Committee (SSC) about the Imagine 2010 programme

2. Pilot the involvement of external groups such as Associate Members and IATA Assist Safety Managers in their daily work with practical issues – give them the opportunity to discuss the application of tools i.e. how to measure safety culture

3. Ensure that the SSC members leave feeling enrolled, engaged and in the future of CANSO safety activities


Samantha Sharif: “The seminar will focus on delivering extraordinary results”

The work schedule will be intense. Four-and-a-half days of presentations, break-out sessions and brainstorming, led and facilitated by some of the most forward-thinking leaders on ATM safety. The programme is wide-ranging, with day one focused on establishing the top safety priorities. The morning of day two looks at metrics and information exchange, with risk identification the topic for the afternoon.


Bill Voss

Global aviation safety is getting increasingly complex. What are the most significant challenges facing aviation over the next few years?

Although it is hard to imagine right now, one of the more significant challenges facing aviation is the growth of the industry worldwide and the lack of qualified personnel to fly, maintain and regulate the airplanes. This is especially acute in parts of the world that are still trying to develop an industry that matches the safety record of Western Europe and North America. Of course it is no secret that many ANSPs around the world are facing serious personnel challenges today.

Another challenge will be to better define the relationship between safety regulators and industry. The introduction of safety management systems will fundamentally alter the dynamic. New “more cooperative” relationships look suspicious to politicians and news media who are comfortable with the old paradigm of compliance and punishment.

It is also important that industry helps spread the safety information that has been developed over the past decades. Many of these fast growing economies are

facing the same safety challenges that were faced some time ago in the west. We can help them avoid the same mistakes we made.

How can ATM contribute to resolving these challenges?

ATM could show the way forward on the personnel shortage issue by showing the world how to make personnel licensing truly international. ATM licensing has always been a State-State process. Mobility between States and recognition of licensing is almost unheard of. ATM could change that by developing rigorous standards and testing systems that could make the profession more mobile and more adaptable.

ATM also has better chance to show how a collaborative and constructive relationship can be developed with regulatory authorities. ANSPs have only recently separated themselves from the State regulator. These relationships between ANSP and regulator are still developing and can be more easily guided in the right direction. It is much tougher for airlines that have separated from the regulator for decades to make the same adjustments. Those relationships

are nearly set in stone, and are often examined under a microscope by politicians and the media.

Of course ATM also has a great opportunity to move safety information around the world. There are far fewer ANSPs in the world than airlines, and most of them do not compete with each other. There is a great opportunity for CANSO to exchange safety information between these ANSPs.

The global aircraft manufacturing and airline community are supported by efficient exchanges of safety practices and data, do you think airports and ANSPs should become part of a global safety exchange system?

Absolutely. The more information that is exchanged between the various players in an industry, the better off everyone will be. Safety is an area that is best served by these open channels of communication and widening that channel will only help. CANSO is in a great position to facilitate the exchange of information between ANSPs and the Flight Safety Foundation is in a great position to bridge the gaps when safety information needs to flow between industry sectors.

PEOPLE

William R. Voss has been president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation since October 1, 2006. Prior to his appointment he spent 2 1/2 years at ICAO, and 23 years with the FAA, rising through the ranks to become director of air traffic systems development, a position he held from 1999 to 2001. In that role, he was responsible for the development and acquisition of major automation systems in en route, terminal and oceanic centres. Controllers at the helm, but for how long? Voss argues that “addressing the human factor is the most important safety challenge moving forward”


I think our recent work on runway excursions serves as a great example. For the last couple of years we have been putting ATM, Airlines, Airports, and manufacturers in the same room to deal with problems like stabilised approaches, and runway surface information that contribute to aircraft running off the end of the runway. Everybody owns a piece of those problems. The materials that we put out in a few months will address these issues from end-to-end. Safety problems need to be worked across the domains to keep problems from falling through the cracks.

What role do you think CANSO should play to ensure that aviation & ATM safety continues to improve?

CANSO can do a number of things. For one it can keep pressing for the regionalisation and rationalisation of ATM. At some time we will all be confronted with a shortage of safety critical personnel. To deal with that, we are going to have to make our professionals more mobile and eliminate ineffective historic boundaries. As I have mentioned, CANSO can help show States how to effectively regulate and

ANSPs, and then we can all hope that model will show the way for regulatory reform in other industry segments.

As a leading voice in the aviation and ATM safety discussion, CANSO can use its considerable influence to push for this open communication. One of the biggest threats to this important concept is the criminalisation of the aviation accident investigation process. CANSO is already one of the leading voices in this battle and must continue to defend the investigative process no matter where it leads.

Lastly of course CANSO can help keep the safety information flowing both across the ANSPs and across the industry segments. That is something FSF would be proud to help with.

How far is it possible to ‘design out’ human error from the system, and is this even a laudable objective?

Any system that involves humans will always be at risk from human error. The aviation industry has made it very difficult for a human to crash a plane through its existing efforts to design out human error. That being said, there is

only so much that can be done in that area. Through the use of safety management systems, the impact of human error can be minimised. Through free flow of information between operators, management, manufacturers and regulators, we all can learn from small mistakes and develop responses that will minimise the future impact. Due to the technological excellence from the manufacturers and the redundancy of the systems in use, addressing the human factor is the most important safety challenge moving forward.

Our outgoing Safety Standing Committee Chairman Job Brüggen has speculated about creating some kind of ‘Just Culture Foundation’ which would encourage a Just Culture atmosphere not just in aviation, but other professions such as medicine. Do you think this would be a good idea?”

Yes, this is a good idea and one which I fully support. I am sure that if CANSO were to explore this concept then it would be well received in many quarters. I look forward to working with CANSO and its members on innovative ideas such as this in the coming years.

Controllers at the helm, but for how long? Voss argues that “addressing the human factor is the most important safety challenge moving forward”

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Air Navigation Service Providers, play an integral role in the aviation industry, providing a safe, orderly and expeditious service which minimises the risk of collision between aircraft and aircraft and the ground. The primacy of safety in the delivery of service exists regardless of whether the ANSP is operated as a state institution or run as a commercial operation. ANSPs must assure that risks to operational service delivery are as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). Such a requirement demands a formalised and proactive approach to identifying hazards, analysing associated risks, and taking appropriate measures before damage occurs. This approach in turn requires organisational structures, policies and culture to assure that it is effective. The need to provide a framework, or Safety Management System, for ANSPs within which safety can be managed has been recognised at an international, and in some cases regional and domestic level. The CANSO Safety Management Systems Work Group, Chaired by Dermot Cronin of the IAA and Claire Marrison of Air Services Australia, is developing a CANSO Standard for ANSP Safety Management Systems which is scheduled for publication in 2009. This standard, along with assuring that ANSP achieve the highest levels of safety management, aims to:

• Drive improvement within the industry• Transfer learning across the industry • Allow members to build a SMS which is commensurate

to the size and complexity of their specific operations• Provide a continual improvement path beyond that required

by both international and domestic regulations

The improvement of this safety indicator (aircraft proximity) runs parallel with the development of the safety management system at DFS.

The CANSO SMS Work Group draws heavily on the expertise of its members experience of their own SMS’s. One such example is Germany’s DFS. With an annual increase of controlled air traffic of about 4.5 percent over the last five years, the German airspace is one of the busiest and most complex airspaces in Europe and the rest of the world. In 2007, the German air navigation service provider DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH) controlled more than three million flights under instrument flight rules. Additionally, the German airspace is host to more than two million VFR flights.

As one of the first air navigation service providers, DFS started to develop a safety management strategy as early as in 1995 supported by senior management from the beginning, and

which has been continuously developed and extended up until now.

Over this period of time, some major changes in the provided air traffic services have taken place, such as the integration of civil and military air traffic control. Moreover, the number of area control centres was reduced from six to four and paperless strip systems were introduced in some of the centres. Also, new control towers were put into use, an advanced surveillance movement guidance and control system was implemented at Frankfurt Airport and advanced surface movement radar at various other airports.Currently, significant future-oriented changes are under development, such as the integration of unmanned aircraft systems in airspace that is used by civil aircraft. Also, together with Eurocontrol’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre as well as with the ANSPs, civil aviation authorities and transport ministries of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland, DFS is working on the realisation of the Functional Airspace Block Europe Central.


Safety Management on the Rise

Number of Category A and B aircraft proximities in German airspace (source: APEG)

0

7.5

15.0

22.5

30.0

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Number of aircraft proximities attributed to DFSNumber of aircraft proximities attributed to others, e.g. pilots

All of these changes are carefully assessed regarding safety, and possible risks need to be mitigated to an acceptable level before the changes can be implemented in a predictably safe manner. Up to now, DFS has performed more than 200 safety assessments of changes.

The decreasing number of aircraft proximities, as investigated and categorised by the independent Aircraft Proximity Evaluation Group (APEG), stands as an indicator of air traffic safety over Germany.

The experts of APEG classify aircraft proximities according to a number of categories, including ICAO Category A (risk of collision) and Category B (safety not assured). In the context of growing air traffic, the low number of proximities attributed to DFS and the decreasing overall number point to a continuously decreasing aircraft proximity rate. (See chart above)The improvement of this safety indicator runs parallel with the development of the safety management system at DFS. In the consecutive years after 1995 this has yielded a safety policy, a clear organisation of safety management and introduction of



a safety management system. Since 2000, DFS has been actively supporting the development of the Eurocontrol Safety Regulatory Requirements (ESARRs) and has implemented all those relevant for ANSPs. By fulfilling the ESARRs, DFS also fulfils the more general requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). According to Europe-wide surveys regarding the maturity of safety management commissioned by Eurocontrol, many ANSPs in Europe are still working on fulfilling these requirements. On a worldwide level this situation is confirmed by the results of ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USAOP).

The safety management system of DFS is based on the safety policy, which specifies the company’s principles and targets regarding safety as well as the corresponding responsibilities and organisation. The system is based on three main processes in order to achieve safety, assure safety and improve safety.

Safety is achieved by developing appropriate changes, assessing the safety of the resulting situation, and mitigating risks to an acceptable level. The changes are to be suitably documented and people need to be trained for new situations.

Safety is assured by analysing the safety performance of the ongoing operation. Occurrences need to be reported and investigated, and the resulting statistics are monitored. When safety aspects tend to develop adversely, adjusting measures have to be taken. Finally, safety is improved by learning from experience, for example through safety letters and safety days. Staff can also report concerns regarding safety in a confidential manner.

The embedded safety culture enabling an open reporting atmosphere is crucial for continuous improvement. Other special features of the safety management system of DFS are the important role attributed to human factors, the development of handbooks and guidelines, different supporting tools and the integration of security issues. Human factors have been recognised as a crucial and inherent aspect in safety management. Expertise from across the organisation

is pooled in a network of human factors experts from the air navigation services operations, the corporate safety management department, the DFS Academy which provides training and education to controllers and other staff, and the research department. Another example of the important role attributed to human factors is the implementation of critical incident stress management (CISM) early after the beginning of safety management. CISM supports controllers after experiencing particularly stressful occurrences.

The embedded safety culture enabling an open reporting atmosphere is crucial for continuous improvement.

Handbooks and guidelines have been in place for the various safety management processes and they are regularly updated to take account of new experience and to provide support in performing the processes. Tools support various safety management processes. There is, for example, a tool to systematise risk assessment and mitigation, and a tool to demonstrate safety relevant occurrences, thereby providing quick insight into separation infringements, for instance. Security management has been fully integrated into the safety management system. The particular topic of IT security is becoming more and more important due to the increasing networking of systems, and is a standard aspect of risk assessments.

Generally, a safety management system’s effectiveness lies in the experience that has been gained, and the safety culture in which it is embedded. With the large, complex and busy German airspace and the implementation and use of the safety management system over a relatively long period, DFS has built up extensive expertise. Consulting projects for other ANSPs and organisations have added to this expertise and made it beneficial to others.

Structure of the Safety Management System of DFS

Safety policy

Company principles Organisation Safety targets Responsibilities

Achieving safetySafety assessments

Risk mitigationTraining

Documentation

Assuring safetySafety monitoring

Occurrence reportingOccurrence investigation

Statistics

Improving safetyConfidential reporting

Learning from experienceSafety letterSafety days

1st CANSO Middle East ANSPConference

26 – 28 JANUARY 2009 JEDDAH, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

Organised by:

Hosted by:

Supported by:

Key Speakers:

Eng. Mohammed Ahmed Al-Salmi, Vice President ANS GACA

Mohammed R.M. Khonji *, Regional Director, ICAO Middle East Office

Alexander ter Kuile, Secretary General CANSO

Majdi Sabri *, Regional Vice President - Middle East, Member and Government Relations IATA * Invited

Key Subjects:

Safety Operational & Technical Airspace Planning Cooperation

86469 Advertentie Middle East ANSP.indd 1 22-10-2008 10:35:24


African airspace looks to enter new safety era

“Africa’s airspace management has been the subject of considerable criticism and safety concerns” says Tom Kok, Director of AviAssist, a non-profit organisation focused on improving aviation safety in sub-Saharan Africa. “This appears to arise from a combination of outdated and/or poorly maintained equipment, poorly trained and lowly motivated staff and revenue flows from over-flight rights not being deployed for air traffic management. It is also important to note that aviation safety competes with many other pressing social needs.”

One ATM challenge – VHF coverage

The African ATM environment poses a number of extra challenges to pilots and ATC staff.

One of the basic challenges is that there are still large areas that have limited or no VHF coverage. An IATA survey from September 2007 showed that the Flight Information Regions (FIRs) of Angola, Congo, DR Congo, Somalia and Sudan have limited VHF coverage. The communication deficiencies in DRC and Angola affect many flights over Africa given their geographical positions and sheer size. As a result pilots regularly have to revert to HF stations in those FIRs. This seriously increases the workload, which can become an even bigger burden when more stations using the same frequency are in range.

To provide a safety net for the low level of service in some airspace, In Flight Broadcasting Procedures (IFBP) are in place over large parts of the African

airspace. Unreliable communications in such airspace justify the use of IFBP. A recent review of Air Traffic Incidents indicates that most pilots are conversant with and strictly adhere to the IFBP but some are unaware or do not strictly apply the procedure.

Revision of the IFBP area takes place on the basis of a regional communications survey by IATA. At the last IATA Regional Coordination Group meeting early 2008, the IFBP area was reduced from 28 Flight Information Regions to 20 African FIRs. Though progress may be slower then desirable given the growth of traffic, it is encouraging to see improvement.

Regional solutions

More and more, regionalisation is looked at as an interesting solution for the African aviation community.

The multinational management of the ATM of the ASECNA states is clearly a structurally more advance solution to Africa’s air traffic management needs. ASECNA comprises fifteen West and Central African States as well as Madagascar, an area 1.5 times the size of Europe.

However, regional cooperation brings up issues of national independence and pride, be it in the West or in Africa. That means that the road to regionalisation is not an easy one. The success of ASECNA may partially depend on the fact that it was started in 1959, before most of its member states became independent. As such, the territories were then still mostly part of one or two colonial administrations and national pride was less of an issue.

“Regional cooperation is a very constructive path but shouldn’t lead to

With the Football World Cup due to be held in South Africa in 2010, experts are expecting to see a significant increase in traffic in the region. As expectations for performance rise, African aviation watchers are turning their attention to the high accident rates which are the most visible consequence of sub-Saharan Africa’s struggling aviation safety system. The urgent need to upgrade aviation safety standards, systems and infrastructure in Africa is one of today’s most pressing aviation safety challenges.

FEATURE


AviAssist Foundation

The AviAssist Foundation is the regional affiliate of the Flight Safety Foundation for East and Southern Africa. CANSO has two members in the region in which the AviAssist Foundation works. As an independent non-profit organisation, the AviAssist Foundation identifies threats to safety, analyses the problems and works on practical solutions to them.

The Foundation runs a trainee program to increase African capacity on aviation safety project management. Promising young individuals get an opportunity to earn their place in the fascinating world of aviation safety promotion.

Registered in the Netherlands with a representative in Zambia, the AviAssist Foundation is reliant on support from corporations, governments, individuals and foundations. In exchange, the Foundation can assist organisations and companies outside Africa in mobilising their resources for aviation safety support to Africa by designing and implementing corporate social strategies around their business operations. Such safety support usually also unlocks valuable commercial information.

The AviAssist Foundation is proud to act at the forefront of African aviation safety and be part of the solutions.

For more info on the AviAssist Foundation, visit www.aviassist.org

delaying of national capacity building” suggests Kok. “In particular since lengthy timelines are involved with regional solutions. Capacity build-up at a national level can very well be gradually integrated into the regional entity in due time.”

Opportunities for resolution

“Some African countries and companies have done a brilliant job in improving their systems and can’t wait to tell their stories” explains Kok. “The current system hides those heroes. The AviAssist Foundation supports others in their efforts to replicate such success stories. It supports distribution of industry best practices in the region. But the African region faces the extra challenge of difficulty in accessing best

practices that may be ‘readily’ available on the internet. Making best practices available on websites is not the same as rolling it out in a region with limited internet access.”

The ICAO Africa Comprehensive Implementation Plan (ACIP) offers good prospects for a coordinated approach.

Important work is being done in cooperation with the Industry Safety Strategy Group (ISSG) on implementing the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap (GASR). The implementation of ACIP will provide a thorough test of whether ICAO can effectively assume its new implementation role, and lead African aviation to a new and safer era.

Tom Kok: “Regional cooperation... shouldn’t lead to delaying of national capacity building.”

• Hard-copy subscription • ATM News

AIRSPACE QUARTER ONE 2008 1

journal of the civil air navigation services organisationISSUE 01 QUARTER ONE 2008

AIRSPACE PEOPLE

Scott CarsonCEO Boeing Commercial Aircraft

ENVIRONMENT

The next steps

for ANSPs

SES 2

Progress in 2008?

CUSTOMERS AND MARKETS

How new aircraft and new

economies are changing ATM forever

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AIRSPACE QUARTER 2/3 2008 1

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Brave New World:How CANSO is going to transform the business

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ASIA-PACIFIC SPOTLIGHT:

CANSO’s New Regional Office

Customer perspective

– Cathay Pacific’s Owen Dell

ADS-B in the South China Sea

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CANSO Safety Standing Committee Chairman

JOB BRÜGGEN

What signalled the start of the Safety Standing Committee and how long has it been in operation?

It has been operative for quite a while now. The Safety Standing Committee in its current form was created by a very small group of safety directors in 2002 when we felt it was obvious that there was a need to work together much closer than before. Since then, the group has grown considerably and the work ambition with it. We can see now that the Safety work is one of the prime objectives of CANSO.

How would you characterise the objectives of the Safety Standing Committee?

The five year goal of the CANSO Safety Standing committee was to achieve ‘a demonstrable reduction in key global ATM safety risks.’ I think the work we did over the last few years has undoubtedly brought us nearer to that goal, and through the work we have done on runway incursions, human performance and performance metrics, we have certainly laid the foundations for the CANSO safety work for the years to come.

CANSO have been talking about safety metrics for a while now. What is the state of play?

Ultimately we are closing the deal on safety metrics. We are aiming for a global standard: acceptance by the industry and endorsement at ICAO is the goal. The difficulty has been twofold

Our aim has always been to provide safety metrics that help improve safety

– firstly, agreement within the ANSPs on common ways to measure safety, and secondly reaching an agreement to share such statistics not only with each other but also with the outside world. Our aim has always been to provide safety metrics that help improve safety – not just provide material for benchmarking and the associated ‘number hunting’ without real safety improvements. We all accept that it is only through peer scrutiny that true benchmarking and improvement can be made, but safety is so sensitive that it is not surprising that it has taken some time to get to where we are today. But we are very close to putting statistics into the public domain.

What would you say to anyone arguing that there are already too many standards out there?

Well I would agree with them up to a point. There are a lot of ‘tombstone’ regulations out there, that say: “If you do it like this, you’re okay.” So very procedural oriented. But such a standard is not a metric and it doesn’t indicate anything for the future when

circumstances will have changed. Safety metrics have been practically absent. The best description is usually found in the ‘absence of risk’ terminology, but how are we going to put metrics to that with some credibility and practical use outside the academic circles? Our proposed metrics and standards are not designed for oversight – they are designed for operational improvement and for benchmarking performance. It is precisely because we want to avoid duplication and foster acceptance that we have worked so closely with the likes of Eurocontrol to ensure that our metrics are compatible and complimentary. The impact of these industrial standards on safety management systems and safety metrics, almost cannot, in my opinion, be overestimated: it will have a major impact for the harmonisation and subsequent improvement of safety management. Consider that all the ANSPs in the world will suddenly be working with one standard! It is the same as being able to play a CD in all CD-players of the world – and so obvious too. This will, I am sure, greatly stimulate innovation and create energy around the world that will work in the same direction. That is why the standard cannot be one and the same for years and years: we shall be ready to adapt to innovations that will certainly be made.

What can we expect to see in terms of technological change, and will this help safety?

The technological change that is coming will undoubtedly improve safety. New developments such as the Airborne

PEOPLE


Separation Assurance System have enormous potential which is out there. The difficulty with it is that Air Traffic Management is a multi-actor issue: everyone is responsible and takes their own decisions. That makes common financing for technological progress and hence enhanced safety and better throughput extremely difficult. Legislation could help there. But we do need to ensure that we understand its application correctly; the human being must stay in the loop, even if they step away from being the primary actor in ensuring aircraft separation.

Looking back on your time as Chairman, what are you most proud of, and what do you think should be a priority in the future?

I am very pleased at the progress we have made in CANSO the past years on all the subjects we work on. The committee always worked on the basis of professional instinct combined with good personal relationships. The latter was crucially important if we wanted to share safety data, which are always quite sensitive. We had explicitly to build trust between the participants and I believe we have achieved that. Now with the

Imagine 2010 programme we have some clear cut goals and objectives which are very good and helps to shape our output. I am also very pleased with the added manpower the committee so clearly deserves which came with Imagine 2010. All the committee members have been doing this for a large part in their ‘free time’, as they have a regular job to manage in the first place. I am proud to have been part of the team that laid the foundations for the committee in its current form.

Over time, it becomes apparent that we are past the stage of automatic safeguards and mechanical or electronic systems to protect against hazards, say the years 1950s to 1980s. We are in the midst of an era where belief in the power of safety management systems is at its peak. I think that the next ten years will show that further safety improvement is not really possible with that, as ultimately it is the human and his/her behaviour that makes all the difference. So we step into the area of Safety Culture. Ultimately we will then see the size and complexity of Safety Management Systems and associated administration burden reduce. But we are far from there yet. For instance:

how would a regulator maintain oversight on a good safety culture? We will be addressing already the Safety Culture issue in our shortly to be published CANSO ANSP Standard for safety management systems.

In relation to that we also now need to make similar progress around the concept of ‘Just Culture’. We have to be very careful that in a world where there is an increasingly litigious attitude towards controllers, we give people an outlet where they can express any concerns in a atmosphere of security and trust. I would like to explore the idea of a Just Culture Foundation – certainly by teaming up with the medical profession, which suffers from a similar problem only on a much greater scale than aviation. Of course, it is important the people have the right of redress, and that there is accountability in the system. But it is vital that such actions are not counter-productive to achieving greater safety gains. So many of our leaps forward have come from being able to learn the lessons from mistakes. Sometimes, it can be the only good that can emerge from a tragedy. We must not lose those opportunities.

Brüggen is passionate about the development of a Just Culture environment for ATM

26 QUARTER 2/3 2008 AIRSPACE

Following the Madeira Statement, released at CANSO’s AGM in June, ANSPs have committed themselves to exploring or giving new impetus to a number of flight efficiency programmes. The modernisation schemes in the world’s busiest airspace regions promise to triple capacity, cut costs, and improve safety by a factor of ten, but Europe’s SESAR initiative and the US NextGen system will not become reality until 2020. In 2008, more than 25 airlines have gone out of business and the remainder face a collective USD5.2 billion loss. The surge in fuel price – accounting for almost 40 per cent of operating costs – and downturn in passenger demand, calls for more immediate action.

Fortunately, much of the technology needed to support future airspace design is already available. The challenge is to bring it into operation. Each new aircraft delivery adds to the number equipped with advanced navigation and communications capability, able to take advantage of precision area navigation routes and more direct flight paths. Reliable navigation tools also enable aircraft to fly reduced vertical separation standards, available in most parts of the world and most recently across China, Russia and Africa. Controllers can use air traffic flow management tools to help aircraft avoid bad weather and iron out bottlenecks in the system, and can uplink route changes mid-flight in less busy oceanic airspace. The industry needs to transfer these practices to busy continental airspace.

ANSPs are responding by shifting focus from capacity growth to flight efficiency and environmental impact, to offset the airlines’ rising cost base. The hike in fuel’s share of total airline operating costs means even marginal savings add value. “We have lacked such a

pragmatic approach traditionally,” says Alexander ter Kuile, CANSO Secretary General. “CANSO and IATA are working closer together and there is more transparency over the tools and measures we deploy. This has always been the case for systems and technology, but we are starting to extend this to include procedures and airspace design.”

of night time arrivals achieve fuel, noise and emissions savings. CDAs at Swedish airports cut noise levels by as much as 50 per cent under the flight path. Eurocontrol estimates that if CDAs became standard throughout Europe, airlines would cut CO2 emissions by 945,000 tonnes annually.

Most CDAs start around 6-7,000ft or within 30n miles of touchdown. However, the fuel, noise and emissions savings can be increased if the process begins at the top of descent. This calls for coordination between en route and approach sectors of the flight, and accurate time of arrival predictions that take account of weather, wind and traffic congestion. In this case ATC uplinks the arrival route clearance to the aircraft, where it is fed into the flight management computer. The descent profile is a more complex calculation, tailored to each arrival by a ground decision support tool. The FAA has been supporting Tailored Arrivals (TAs) at San Francisco since December 2007, where Boeing estimates that flights able execute the full TA achieve 34-38 per cent fuel savings over the legacy arrival procedure. A NASA-developed En Route Descent Advisor prototype tool is used to calculate the optimised approach profiles.

Participating airlines equipped with satellite data link communications (FANS 1/A avionics) are able to receive uplinked ATC messages during flight, and similarly can downlink air-ground messages to ATC or airline operational control (AOC). FANS 1/A aircraft also broadcast position information in the form of Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Contract (ADS-C) messages which provide ground controllers with frequent surveillance updates. The FANS 1/A data link capability enables route, speed and altitude changes to be loaded into the


CANSO Members seek more efficient operationsWith world aviation looking like it will enter a period of recession, with falling passenger numbers and higher costs from the recent increases in jet fuel, CANSO members have been focusing on ways to increase airspace efficiency and cut costs for their customers.

Efficient arrivals procedures that require no additional equipment and generate fuel and time savings are a good example. Many air traffic control authorities now offer pilots a Continuous Descent Approach (CDA), in which engines operate at low power, in place of a conventional step-down approach requiring level flight with higher engine power settings. Once ATC has issued information for a CDA, the pilot relies on the aircraft flight management system to fly the optimum descent path to the runway, saving on average 50-100kg of fuel and 300 kg CO2 per flight. CDAs are well established at London airports, where 80 per cent of daytime and 95 per cent

The CANSO Madeira StatementThe Statement was agreed at the close of the 12th CANSO AGM, in Madeira, on June 18th, in response to a request from IATA for ANSPs to consider what they could do to help airlines through a painful period of high fuel prices and economic slowdown. The Statement called for a CANSO action team to look at cost reduction measures and it committed ANSPs to review investment plans and investigate ways in which airspace efficiencies could be increased.

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aircraft’s management system quickly and easily, and supports dynamic flight paths that take advantage of the latest weather and ATC conditions. Ground-based support tools are an essential part of the process, as they display track data in real-time, assess trajectory changes, and probe for potential conflict. The new communication and surveillance infrastructure installed in oceanic control centres supports the introduction of flexible tracks and user preferred routes over the South Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

In September, the FAA began TAs into Miami with demonstration flights by United Airlines and Air France arriving from Europe. A week of testing introduced the concept to the East Coast environment where the early results point to significant fuel burn reduction. Real-time coordination between New York oceanic centre and Miami approach control enabled three flights to execute full TAs, and three to execute partial TAs with temporary level-off as precaution because of traffic and weather. The programme is due to resume in November following the introduction of some procedural changes, and subsequent phases may include the participation of Lufthansa flights.

flight. These were followed by eight demonstration flights by Air Europa between Madrid and the Caribbean. By updating the flight profile on the ocean segment of the flight, the airline achieved fuel savings of up to one per cent. Further demonstrations in 2009 target three operational domains: ground, terminal and oceanic operations, under a European tender.

The savings identified under AIRE have been surpassed by the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) led by three ANSPs; Airservices Australia, Airways New Zealand, and FAA Air Traffic Organisation. In the first of three flights across the South Pacific, Air New Zealand achieved four per cent reduction in fuel and emissions (4,500 litres and 12 tonnes CO2) in September as a result of optimised departure, en route, and arrival phases of flight. An expedited route from the departure gate, optimised climb, dynamic oceanic flight profile taking advantage of 30/30 n mile separation standards, and tailored arrival into San Francisco combined to maximize savings.Further ASPIRE flights planned by United Airlines and Qantas, in October and November, anticipate similar gains, and introduce a new approach to flight management that begins and ends at the boarding gate. The process demands coordination on a much bigger scale than hitherto, and has only been demonstrated on less dense South Pacific routes. ASPIRE plans to

increase the availability of the Dynamic Airborne Reroute Program (DARP) and User Preferred Routes (UPSs) for airlines in both the South and North Pacific. For example the planned United Airlines Sydney-San Francisco flight on November 14th expects to achieve optimised trajectory on departure, unimpeded climb to cruise, optimised route to oceanic, DARP, and preferred speed profiles. The ASPIRE project has progressed rapidly since its launch at the start of 2008, and succeeds at an operational level as a result of direct ANSP and airline involvement.

The demonstrations serve to showcase the technology already in place, and illustrate what can be achieved in a controlled environment. Transferring this to complex airspace calls for more coordination, as well as consensus over potential benefits. For example, introducing a more direct route that adds to noise levels over populated areas may save fuel but add environmental penalties. Avoiding congested airspace may save time, but extend route length. NATS, the UK ANSP, has completed detailed research into environmentally optimum route profiles and will use the results to inform their airspace design and route network changes, delivering fuel savings for airlines. While the long term objective is to restructure European airspace under the region’s modernisation programme, the aim is also to introduce quick wins in the short term as a result of more efficient procedures and airspace design.


The flights are part of the Atlantic Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE) agreement signed in mid 2007 by the US and European states. AIRE has conducted several projects to find efficiencies that help to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. In early 2008 US carriers flew demonstration flights into Atlanta and Miami that followed precision area navigation (known as RNAV) arrival routes, saving 155-415 kg of fuel per

NORTH ATLANTICOCEAN

MOROCCO

MAURITANIACUBA

JAMAICA

SPAIN

The map corresponds to the flight AEA051, Madrid-Havana, on 19th May. The blue line represents the initial planned route; the red line represents the actual route flown by the aircraft. The fuel saving in the oceanic part this flight was 400 kg (around 1% of total fuel)

FAA Administrator Marion Blakely & EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot sign the cooperation agreement on the AIRE project, June 2007


The Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles consists of five islands which are located in the Caribbean. They are Curacao, Bonaire, Dutch Sint Martin, Saba and Sint Eustatius. The Netherlands Antilles together with the Netherlands and Aruba form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba are situated in the Western Caribbean and located in the Curacao FIR.

Dutch Sint Martin, Saba and Sint Eustatius are situated in the Eastern Caribbean and are located in the FIR of San Juan.

The NAATC’s vision statement

The NAATC is the autonomous and professional air traffic service provider which guarantees high quality of safety and efficiency in their assigned airspace.

The NAATC’s mission statement

The NAATC realizes its vision by:

• Investing continuously in the upgrading and development of its personnel;

• Creating a stable working environment where creativity and innovation is stimulated;

• Keeping track of technological developments;

• Investing in new, if any, state-of-the-art equipment;

• Strengthen networks and/or joint efforts on regional and international level.

The entity

The NAATC is a limited liability company incorporated in Curaçao on February 9th 2005, which became operational on April 1st, 2006, when the public entity Netherlands Antilles delegated these activities to the Company.

The Government of the Netherlands Antilles is the only shareholder of the NAATC. The entity is being managed by a Management, under the supervision of a Board of Commissioners.

The main objective of the privatisation process was to promote efficient, financially independent and quality oriented Air Traffic Control Services as to assure safety, efficiency and a smooth settlement of all air traffic.

The NAATC has a workforce of 73 employees of which 44 are air traffic controllers, working in the Area Control Centre in Curaçao and in the Flamingo Tower in Bonaire.

The NAATC is currently engaged in the completion of the integration process of the Hato Tower Curaçao personnel into the entity.

Curaçao FIR

The NAATC provides air traffic control services within The Curaçao FIR with the exception of a limited airspace, referred to as Beatrix Control Zone, with a radius of 25 NM around the aerodrome reference point of the International airport of Aruba (Beatrix Int’ Airport). The upper limit of Beatrix Control Zone corresponds to a pressure altitude of 6500 ft.

INSIDE CANSOFocus on… The Netherlands Antilles Air Traffic Control Inc.The Netherlands Antilles Air Traffic Control Inc. referred to as NAATC, provides air navigation services to aircraft operating within the Curaçao Flight Information Region (FIR). The aim of the NAATC is to provide safe and efficient Air Traffic Control Service within the air space for which the Netherlands Antilles are responsible for.

NAATC Director General, Mrs. Micilia Albertus-Verboom, leads CANSO’s newest member, and first from the Central/South America region


INSIDE CANSO

A great deal of flights between the North American continent and the South American continent transit the Curacao FIR. This airspace – because of its strategic location – is consequently one of the most important in the Caribbean region.

The NAATC coordinates with the adjacent Flight Information Regions of Venezuela, Colombia, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Training

Today, the NAATC is making training more effective by gearing it towards the skills needed for a successful career-long development and by ensuring continued alignment to the vision of the NAATC.

With its Training institute in place NAATC has the capability to efficiently and effectively train the controllers needed by providing Air Traffic Control courses to new recruits as well as refresher courses to local ATC personnel in order to stay updated with all procedures according to ICAO standards and requirements.

The NAATC has a state-of-the-art Radar simulator in order to expedite new controller training as well as refresher training as stipulated by ICAO. In the not so distant future, the NAATC will acquire an Aerodrome Simulator in order to provide training more efficiently and effectively.

Technology

The NAATC has a primary Raytheon radar which covers 120 nautical miles as well as a secondary radar of 256 nautical miles which is Mode-S capable. Provision of radar service is effected by those two radar systems.

Simultaneously, the NAATC must manage today’s air traffic while integrating new technologies and regulations into air traffic operations. Even as the NAATC moves to a more automated future, the air traffic controller will continue to be an integral part of the aviation safety. The phase-in of these new technologies and the phase-out of the older technologies is a long term gradual process currently under development. The NAATC is working diligently to ensure well-trained personnel and needed technology to continue to uphold

the highest safety standards in order to promote a safe, orderly expeditious flow of air traffic.

Because of the combined expertise of the NAATC personnel, the support of technology and the application of standardized procedures, every day, hundreds of aircrafts are guided safely and expeditiously through the Curaçao FIR to their destinations. This carefully coordinated movement of people and goods contributes significantly to the economic well-being of the Dutch Caribbean.

The Curacao FIR is a strategically vital piece of airspace in the Carribbean


INSIDE CANSO

CANSO – The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation – is the global voice of the companies that provide air traffic control, and represents the interests of Air Navigation Services Providers worldwide. CANSO members are responsible for supporting over 80% of world air traffic, and through our Workgroups, members share information and develop new policies, with the ultimate aim of improving air navigation services on the ground and in the air. CANSO also represents its members’ views in major regulatory and industry forums, including at ICAO, where we have official Observer status.

JOINING CANSOThe membership of CANSO is drawn from a wide range of ANSPs and companies involved with the delivery of air traffic services. Membership offers them the chance to network formally and informally, exchange best practice, and

Who We Are and What We Do

Aena – SpainAEROTHAI – ThailandAirports Authority of IndiaAirservices AustraliaAirways New ZealandANS of the Czech Republic ATNS – South AfricaATSA – BulgariaAustro Control – AustriaAvinor – NorwayAZANS – Azerbaijan Belgocontrol – BelgiumCAAS – SingaporeDFS – GermanyDHMI – TurkeyDSNA – FranceEANS – EstoniaENAV SpA – ItalyFederal Aviation Administration – USAFinavia – FinlandGACA – Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaHellenic Civil Aviation Authority HungaroControlIrish Aviation AuthorityISAVIA – Iceland

Kazaeronavigatsia – KazakhstanLFV – SwedenLGS – LatviaLPS Slovak RepublicLVNL – the NetherlandsMATS – MaltaNAATC – Netherlands Antilles NAMA – NigeriaNANSC – EgyptNATS – UKNAV CANADANAV PortugalNaviair – DenmarkOACA – TunisiaOro Navigacija – LithuaniaPANSA – PolandROMATSA – RomaniaSakaeronavigatsia Ltd – GeorgiaSercoskyguide – SwitzerlandSlovenia ControlSMATSA – SerbiaState ATM Corporation – Russia UkSATSE – Ukraine

contribute to CANSO Workgroups, delivering the standards and policies that will drive the future development of Air Navigation Services.

Full (ANSP) Membership is open to all ANSPs, regardless of whether or not they are autonomous of their government. Associate members can apply for either Gold or Silver status, which brings differing levels of event and advertising discounts and access to CANSO Workgroups. All members get a free listing in the CANSO Yearbook, and have access to the Global ATM Net, an extranet that is the hub of CANSO’s activities, and home to an extensive member database.

For further information on joining CANSO, please contact Marc-Peter Pijper on +31 (0)23 568 5380 or email [email protected]

Full Members Associate Members

Gold MembersBoeingEra CorporationFREQUENTIS AGGroupEAD Europe S.L.Lockheed MartinRaytheonSELEX Sistemi Integrati S.p.A. Sensis CorporationThales

Silver MembersAdacel Inc.AirbusARINCATC Global (CMP Information Ltd)ATCA – JapanAviation Advocacy SarlBarco Orthogon GmbH Booz Allen HamiltonComsoft GmbHEntry Point NorthESR Technology Aviation GM Merc A/S

HeliosHITT TrafficIndra SistemasIntegra A/SIntelcan Technosystems Inc.ITT Radar Systems – GilfillanJeppesenL-3 Communications ESSCO Lochard LtdThe MITRE Corporation – CAASDM.L.S. International CollegeNaverus, Inc.PA Consulting Group A/S Park Air Systems ASQinetiQQuintiqSITASun Microsystems, Inc.Swedavia ABTerma A/SU.S. DoD Policy Board on Federal Aviation

Dark area illustrates airspace controlled by CANSO members

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Airspace Issue 3