ES2

Safety management system

Anticipating a progression from basic implementation to continuous improvement of the safety culture of an organisation.

THIS IS PART OF

Experience sharing to enhance safety management systems (ES2), anticipates a progression from basic implementation to continuous improvement of the safety culture of an organisation.

At EUROCONTROL we provide direct and pragmatic support to air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and functional air blocks (FABs) to gradually implement the elements of a tailor-made safety management system. Through ES2 we promote information and experience-sharing to move from local implementation and apply a success-based approach to a wider environment, paving the way for the measurement of performance in this same system.

Benefits

Sharing knowledge amongst air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and functional air blocks (FABs) is beneficial in improving individual approaches and provides a route for achieving excellence within the fast-moving European regulatory framework.

With this idea in mind, our experts run regular local working sessions and three plenary sessions per year, culminating in the CEO Safety conference. The event brings together the CEOs of ANSPs from across Europe to share and exchange on safety management and on the implementation of new requirements. The idea is to help service providers and network operators anticipate future challenges and adapt to the continuing evolution of the regulatory framework.

Background

ES2 started in 2010. It is an extension of the former SASI project in the framework of which best practices for several SMS operations were developed. The ANSPs which benefited from this project were extremely complementary about the support provided. The first phase of the SASI project aimed to implement the basic elements of an SMS by the end of 2005. Many of these were achieved, and the 70% SMS maturity baseline was passed at the end of 2009.

SASI management adopted a three-pronged strategy to achieve the project’s objective:

  • Initial development of material (framework of procedures, awareness of material and training needs) through working sessions involving safety managers;
  • Local deployment at individual ANSPs by the safety manager, with possible support from the SASI experts;
  • Continuous improvement, based on feedback from safety managers, in order to enhance the overall efficiency of a given procedure.

Each safety management system is tailored to suit the ANSP’s and State’s safety maturity, constraints and culture. As the safety maturity of an ANSP improves, our teams work extensively with the local experts to customise the generic SMS to the particular country.