A methodology for measuring safety performance

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for calculating an airport’s level of safety performance. An airport administration needs to know the airside level of safety performance in place in its airport in order to follow the civil aviation authority’s requirements. The methodology is based on three basic ideas. The first states that safety performance can be achieved through a monitoring process on a limited group of indicators. The second affirms that each safety performance indicator (SPI) has a specific weight over the whole safety performance, and the third states that it is possible to calculate SPI performance based on the advance toward a previously established target. To explain the method, an example is presented in this paper, based on Brazilian civil aviation data, showing that when a relevant set of airports SPI is defined it is possible to estimate the level of safety performance (LoSP), to function as a safety parameter as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The use of this methodology will facilitate the task of airport managers and safety regulatory authorities in finding a more accurate and quantifiable definition of what the airport’s acceptable LoSP is.