Additional Member States and first airports join EASA’s award-winning Data4Safety programme

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s Data4Safety programme expanded to include an additional nine EASA Member States and its first eight airport members, the expansion coinciding with the selection of the initiative for an industry award giving global recognition for EASA’s contribution to aviation safety.

Data4Safety (D4S) is a voluntary and collaborative partnership between EASA, the EASA Member States, and the aviation industry, which uses contributed data to proactively identify and manage safety risks at European level. It also supports data-driven changes in the fields of aviation safety and sustainability, drawing on data-centric aviation intelligence.

Examples of contributed data are safety reports, flight data from air operators, traffic data from the air traffic management (ATM) system plus weather data. Big Data and Data Science technologies are applied so that the millions of data points can be analysed to draw observations and conclusions.

“Data4Safety takes the collaboration of EASA with the Member States and the aviation industry in the fields of data sharing and analysis to an unprecedented level,” said Florian Guillermet, EASA Executive Director. “It enables a modern data-centric approach of safety risk management for the Agency and for the Sector and equips us with the ecosystem we need to efficiently leverage on innovative digital technologies.”

The 17 new members joined D4S at the second General Assembly of the programme, held in Cologne on September 25, 2024. All 59 D4S member organisations contribute to the programme by sharing aviation safety data on the D4S Digital Platform. Their aviation subject matter experts then engage in collaborative activities to analyse the data shared and translate the outcomes into actionable safety intelligence products.

This year, the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) joined the event to announce that it had selected D4S to receive this year’s Jerome Lederer Safety Leadership Medal. FSF said that this global recognition was a tribute to the ambitious work and achievements of EASA in the field of aviation data sharing and analysis, made possible by the instrumental contribution of the EASA Member States and industry.

The second General Assembly allowed the D4S Members to experience live demonstrations of the new D4S Big Data Platforms, which entered into service in mid-2024. The EASA programme team showcased the first use case activities that were conducted by the D4S experts in the third quarter of 2024, demonstrating the already impressive capabilities of the platforms and their potential.

D4S will now continue through the development phase of the programme and further expand its membership, with the aim of including all domains of the European aviation industry. The programme is planned to reach the operational phase in 2026.

Background on Data4Safety

The D4S initiative started with a feasibility study in 2015, moved into the proof-of-concept phase from 2017 to mid-2022, and then reached the current development phase in the autumn of 2022.

At the start of the development phase, the programme involved 12 founding member organisations: 6 air operators, 3 EASA Member State National Aviation Authorities (NAAs), 2 aircraft manufacturers, and the European Cockpit Association (ECA) as representatives of pilot communities.

In October 2023, the first D4S General Assembly was held, and the first membership expanded with the onboarding of 8 new air operators and 15 additional EASA Member States. The programme also opened to the ATM domain with the onboarding of 8 air navigation service provider (ANSP) organisations and IFATCA as representative of the air traffic controllers (ATCOs).

On September 25, 2024, at the second General Assembly of the programme, held in Cologne, the expansion of the membership continued with the onboarding of 9 additional EASA Member States and the opening to the aerodromes domain with the 8 first individual airports joining Data4Safety.

Current members of D4S are: the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA); the Member State National Aviation Authorities (NAAs) of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden; British Airways, EasyJet, Iberia, KLM, Ryanair, Vueling, Aer Lingus, Norwegian, TAP Portugal, Wizz Air, Edelweiss Air, Luxair, TUI Fly Belgium, HOP!, Airbus, Boeing, Airnav Ireland, Austro Control, Eurocontrol (incl. MUAC), DFS, DSNA, ENAIRE, ENAV, SKYGUIDE, Brussels Airport, Budapest Airport (Vinci Group), Copenhagen Airport, Fraport AG, Munich Airport, Oslo (Avinor Group), Prague Airport, SEA Milano Airports, the European Cockpit Association (ECA), and the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA).

In terms of governance, the programme has a steering board and a technical board that are representative of all the families of member organisations participating in Data4Safety. The D4S governing bodies are in charge of the steering of the activities and the prioritisation of the safety topics to be tackled by Data4Safety, as well as the definition of the work programme and driving the practical technical implementation on the D4S Platforms.