NXGN SMS Working Group meets in Bratislava to advance next-generation safety management
The CANSO Next Generation (NXGN) SMS Working Group met in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 3 to 5 November 2026, hosted by LPS SR. The meeting brought together 19 participants from 14 organisations over three days. During this time, the group reviewed progress on its main workstreams and planned the next phase of work.
Some highlights of the meeting include:
Runway safety
The Runway Safety subgroup, presented their latest progress on the CANSO-ACI Runway Safety Checklist. The checklist is being converted into a more practical format, including an offline fillable form, for more user-friendly operational team use. At a later stage, this will also enable participation in a global benchmarking of the tool’s application across industry.
CATS Work Area Two: elevating safety
Much of the meeting focused on CATS Work Area Two – Elevating Safety, which covers three topics:
- Near-real-time integrated safety intelligence requirements
- A common approach to safety risk management and taxonomy
- Criteria for cross-industry safety data
The workshops produced significant discussion and input from the group. Near-term deliverables will be discussion papers on each of the three topics. These papers are expected to be finalised at the CANSO Operations and Safety Connect 2027 in Ottawa, Canada next February 2027 following consultation with key stakeholders.
Beyond SMS
A session on Beyond SMS: Evolving Safety for Pace, Complexity and the Unknown was lead by Job Brüggen from Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL). Participants identified a gap in leadership and safety culture, and discussed developing a generic, high-level training course for senior executives. Several organisations said they were interested in sharing their existing training materials to enable leveraging knowledge across ANSPs and industry. It was agreed that the proposal will be further refined and submitted to the steering group for consideration in coming months.
Other updates
The group also received updates on September Safety Month, improvements being made to the SMS Standard of Excellence (SoE) 2028-2031, CANSO Operations and Safety Connect 2027, and current developments in the ICAO Safety Management Panel. They also received a briefing on a report developed by RTCA Special Committee 147 Low Altitude Alerting Task Team.
Conclusion
Participants agreed to further strengthen links with other groups working on similar topics, including CANSO’s Operations and Safety working groups, EUROCONTROL subgroups, ICAO and wider industry partners. The group’s goal is to share information, avoid working in silos and build awareness of where the work connects. A new Teams channel and SharePoint space was also reviewed, which will give members a shared place to collaborate and store documents between meetings.
The CANSO NXGN SMS Working Group would like to thank LPS SR and working group member Denis Kontarova for hosting the group, and arranging the tour of the LPS facility and the Wednesday evening programme. We also welcome the new members who joined the group in Bratislava.