“It is sure to be another exciting event,” Wennes says. “The CANSO Global Safety Conference always provides critical insights and provides invaluable support to the efforts of the various workgroups.”
“We must train the next generation of controllers for a rapidly changing and diverse industry, which includes emerging technologies and an expansive growth in operations going forward,” he says. “How do we get traditional aviation and new entrants on a common air traffic services system to provide safe access to airspace in an integrated fashion?”
Other safety issues that will form part of CANSO’s work heading towards the ICAO Assembly include stressing the need to develop a common safety reporting taxonomy between industry stakeholders, which will facilitate the analysis process and lead to a greater understanding of potential issues.
Continuing the CATS global vision to include Higher Airspace Operations and educating on the need for geographic true north as a common navigation reference are also on the agenda. True north points directly towards the geographic North Pole and so differs from magnetic north, which is still used a reference for some aviation information.
Everything safety will be discussed at the annual CANSO Global Safety Conference 2025, to be held in Christchurch New Zealand, 24-27 March. The event gathers safety leaders from across the ATM community to debate ways to continue to improve the safety performance of the industry.
Continuing the efforts of the Standard of Excellence in Safety Management Systems (SoE in SMS) programme will be vital. Through CANSO’s partnership with EUROCONTROL and alignment with ICAO Annex 19, the SoE in SMS allows air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to identify and mitigate their safety risk and improve their safety performance.
In 2024, the programme achieved significant engagement with 44 ANSPs completing the detailed assessment questionnaire. This encourages ANSPs to assess their safety against ICAO standards and recommended practices, which are the basis of aviation SMSs.
“The SoE in SMS initiative offers ANSPs a unique opportunity to benchmark their progress, access expert resources, and contribute to a safer global airspace,” says John Wennes, CANSO Safety Programmes Manager.
Wennes next highlights the need to accommodate new technologies and airspace entrants. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM) – intuitive new technologies and models that improve as more data becomes available – have emerged as powerful tools in the realm of safety analytics, offering unprecedented capabilities in data analysis, prediction, risk assessment and workflow efficiencies.
In 2024, CANSO and MITRE conducted a survey from a sample of the CANSO membership to gauge the adoption and impact of these novel technologies in their organisations and the results are being assessed. For Wennes, integrating future technologies must be done even as ANSPs work to provide a more efficient system, with improved safety outcomes.
With the ICAO Assembly taking place later in 2025, CANSO will be preparing several working papers and looking to progress several safety and operations topics.
“We must train the next generation of controllers for a rapidly changing and diverse industry, which includes emerging technologies and an expansive growth in operations going forward,” he says. “How do we get traditional aviation and new entrants on a common air traffic services system to provide safe access to airspace in an integrated fashion?”
Other safety issues that will form part of CANSO’s work heading towards the ICAO Assembly include stressing the need to develop a common safety reporting taxonomy between industry stakeholders, which will facilitate the analysis process and lead to a greater understanding of potential issues.
Continuing the CATS global vision to include Higher Airspace Operations and educating on the need for geographic true north as a common navigation reference are also on the agenda. True north points directly towards the geographic North Pole and so differs from magnetic north, which is still used a reference for some aviation information.
Everything safety will be discussed at the annual CANSO Global Safety Conference 2025, to be held in Christchurch New Zealand, 24-27 March. The event gathers safety leaders from across the ATM community to debate ways to continue to improve the safety performance of the industry.
Continuing the efforts of the Standard of Excellence in Safety Management Systems (SoE in SMS) programme will be vital. Through CANSO’s partnership with EUROCONTROL and alignment with ICAO Annex 19, the SoE in SMS allows air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to identify and mitigate their safety risk and improve their safety performance.
In 2024, the programme achieved significant engagement with 44 ANSPs completing the detailed assessment questionnaire. This encourages ANSPs to assess their safety against ICAO standards and recommended practices, which are the basis of aviation SMSs.
“The SoE in SMS initiative offers ANSPs a unique opportunity to benchmark their progress, access expert resources, and contribute to a safer global airspace,” says John Wennes, CANSO Safety Programmes Manager.
Wennes next highlights the need to accommodate new technologies and airspace entrants. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM) – intuitive new technologies and models that improve as more data becomes available – have emerged as powerful tools in the realm of safety analytics, offering unprecedented capabilities in data analysis, prediction, risk assessment and workflow efficiencies.
In 2024, CANSO and MITRE conducted a survey from a sample of the CANSO membership to gauge the adoption and impact of these novel technologies in their organisations and the results are being assessed. For Wennes, integrating future technologies must be done even as ANSPs work to provide a more efficient system, with improved safety outcomes.
With the ICAO Assembly taking place later in 2025, CANSO will be preparing several working papers and looking to progress several safety and operations topics.
“It is sure to be another exciting event,” Wennes says. “The CANSO Global Safety Conference always provides critical insights and provides invaluable support to the efforts of the various workgroups.”