FABEC States and ANSPs invite Airspace User Associations for workshop on Performance Indicators

Performance indicators (PI) are good for assessing performance and progress towards specific objectives only if they reflect the actual performance. For several years, the FABEC members have been making great efforts to ensure that they reflect reality as closely as possible. At the request of the Airspace Users Associations FABEC States and ANSPs organised a joint workshop in Paris to identify leverages for improving performance and to try to define new pragmatic monitoring PIs through a mutual understanding of respective priorities and constraints in order to identify potential quick wins.

“Further to European regulation, we all have to find ways to improve collectively operational performance. That is why we have come together with a pragmatic approach based on free and open discussion,” said Jean-Christophe Braun (MoT France), representing the FABEC Presidency. “The closer performance indicators match operational and financial reality, the sooner capacity and environmental benefits can be achieved by ensuring punctual flights and by reducing emissions.“

Overcoming the limitations of the current average ATFM delay per flight metric was a key focus of the discussion. Reality has shown that the current capacity metric, which measures the average ATFM delay per flight, often oversimplifies the performance by attributing delays to a single cause. At the same time, it neglects the influence of traffic demand on delay generation and does not fully reflect the efforts made to provide capacity. Therefore, the FABEC ANSPs have proposed a new performance indicator: The "Throughput PI". By focusing on the achieved capacity this indicator is also useful to better identify and understand the causes of delays.

“The Throughput PI will not only reveal correlations between peak traffic, planned traffic and delays, but provide a more nuanced understanding of capacity provision by ANSPs. It will help all stakeholders to better align capacity management with forecasted demand and in addition enhance capacity management strategies”, said Thomas Hellbach, the Chairman of FABEC Performance Management Group.

With regard to environmental performance, limitations of current indicators and the importance of aligning new indicators with overarching goals was stressed. The Green ATM Programme from CANSO and its accreditation process for ANSPs was presented, with a focus on reducing emissions and improving environmental performance, as FABEC decided to include a dedicated target of accreditation in its performance plan for RP4.

All participants agreed on the need for ongoing collaboration to address the imitations of current indicators and develop more effective measures. They recognized the importance of transparency and collaboration among stakeholders and agreed to continue working together to refine performance indicators and improve overall performance.