Performance Insight #1/2020 - Future Challenges to Safety

Welcome to the first edition of the Performance Review Commission (PRC) Performance Insight in which we will inform you about relevant ANS performance related topics!

These are turbulent times for the aviation industry but the road back to normality is also an opportunity to make our ATM system better, to deliver improved performance when traffic returns. Although recovery will be challenging, the aviation industry has shown its strength and resilience before. It will, without a doubt, resume its important role in reconnecting families and business after the COVID‐19 crisis. The COVID‐19 crisis once again underlines the need for close cooperation and coordination and the importance of a proactive, harmonised network wide approach.

The first Performance Insight is on the new PRC niche project initiated in early 2020 - “Future challenges to Safety”. The project considers the future developments and complexity of the ATM system with a forward looking view on new emerging safety challenges. A PRC technical note on what this future work could be and how to establish it, is foreseen by the end of this year.

This publication aims to accompany this new PRC work and the development of a new safety performance framework. It provides some background information on the work with dedicated safety experts in the EUROCONTROL Member States, and other international organisations, at the PRC’s “Future challenges to Safety” workshop held on 29 June 2020.

In addition to a workshop, several experts and researchers were asked for their opinion from different perspectives. Their opinions are not necessarily those of the PRC but will serve as inspiration for further developing work in this domain. In that connection, the PRC wishes to highlight that the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation will need to be addressed as part of the future challenges. The COVID crisis has pushed aviation industry to the limits of its safety performance by worsening existing hazards and creating new ones. We hope that you enjoy reading this Performance Insight.