Think Paper: Air Navigation Safety Performance: A Drive to Move Beyond Compliance Metrics

This CANSO Think Paper explores the limitations of traditional compliance-based safety metrics and examines the potential of Time to Conflict (TTC) as a complementary, risk-based approach to safety management in air navigation.

Historic compliance rules and procedures have been very useful in improving aviation safety worldwide; however, recent advancements in computing capability have resulted in the ability to determine the true risk of encounters between aircraft, even when aircraft meet compliance rules. Adoption of Time to Conflict (TTC) algorithms and processes will permit Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) to further improve safety through the identification of latent safety risk events and the mitigation of risk in such events.

This Think Paper serves as a call for collaboration to further develop risk-based safety management concepts in air navigation.