ENAIRE receives the highest possible score in the European aviation safety indicator

ENAIRE, Spain’s national air traffic manager, is enhancing its position as a leader and benchmark in Europe in air safety management.

The day-to-day work of ENAIRE’s professionals is guided by the mission of providing quality air navigation services in a way that is safe, efficient and environmentally friendly, the goal being to turn ENAIRE into a global operator and leader in the air navigation sector.

This year, ENAIRE’s Safety Management System has already reached the targets set by European regulation for 2024

ENAIRE includes safety as the first and most important goal in its Strategic Plan (2025 Flight Plan), and reinforces safety, paying particular attention to the safety culture, the human factor and cybersecurity in response to the emerging new risks.

Since safety must be the core and differentiating element of its services, ENAIRE is working proactively to ensure that its Safety Management System (SMS), the set of policies, procedures and resources that the organisation provides for the systematic and rigorous management of operational safety, attains the highest levels of excellence.

At the European level, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/317 defines EOSM (Effectiveness of Safety Management) as the key indicator of safety performance. This key performance indicator measures, at a European level, the maturity of the system and the adequacy of the processes and tools established by the service provider to improve safety.

The measurement of this indicator is structured into 5 components, divided into 13 study areas, with a total of 28 issues being assessed from level A (minimum – “initiation”) to level D (maximum – “guaranteed”). Proof must be provided to justify the level reached.

In Spain, the National Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) audits and oversees the answers given by the providers, and forwards its final assessment to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is tasked with ensuring that the process is carried out consistently in every country in accordance with the aforementioned regulation (EU) 2019/317.

The results of the monitoring and evaluation process at the national level for 2020 were recently released for air traffic service providers in Spain in an effort to identify areas of improvement, encourage good practices and provide recommendations aimed at enhancing safety.

The final result of this process to assess the EOSM was very positive for ENAIRE. In keeping with the European standard, the five components of ENAIRE’s Safety Management System are at the highest possible level (100% maturity): Safety policy and goals (C1), Safety culture (C2), Risk Management (C3), Safety Assurance (C4) and Safety Promotion (C5).

According to the official data provided by AESA, ENAIRE achieved the highest possible rating in all the areas assessed, scoring over 10 points higher than the average of national service providers.

Qualitative score in each Safety Area (SA)

SA1 – Development of a positive and proactive organisational culture. SA2 – Operational safety policy. SA3 – Safety responsibilities.                                      SA4 – Coordinated emergency response plan.   SA5 – Documentation of the safety management system.           SA7 – Risk management process.             SA11 – Safety reporting.    SA12 – Safety surveys and audits.                                    SA13 – Follow-up of safety performance.        SA14 – Change management.      SA15 – Constant improvement of the safety management system.SA16 – Training.                     SA17 – Safety communications. Note: the average shown is for the Spanish providers audited by AESA.

Obtaining the highest possible score allows ENAIRE to consolidate its position as a leader and touchstone in Safety Management in Europe, a position that the Spanish national air traffic manager had already achieved after the publication of the 2019 results, and reiterated with the 2020 evaluation.

With these results, ENAIRE has already reached and exceeded the targets set for 2024 for European air traffic service providers.

By virtue of holding this leadership position at the European level, ENAIRE has demonstrated its firm commitment to providing an increasingly safe and robust system, and to achieving excellence in the services it provides.