Technical, Operations & Safety Committee

ACI EUROPE’s Technical, Operations & Safety Committee (TOSC) brings together representatives of individual ACI EUROPE member airports, national airport networks, airport associations as well as equipment and other manufacturers and contractors within the role of World Business Partners (WBP).

Membership of the ACI EUROPE Technical, Operations & Safety Committee (TOSC) has been growing steadily over the last years with a majority of members regularly attending Committee meetings.

Two annual Committee meetings—in Spring and Autumn—are held each year. The meetings are scheduled for one and a half days. A meeting of the TOSC Advisory Group takes place on the day prior to the main Committee meeting, while a tour of the host airport focusing on issues of relevance to the Committee is usually included in the afternoon of the second day.

The Committee draws on the work of its subgroups, the Aerodrome Rules Implementation Exchange (ARIE), Single European Sky (SES) Steering Group, Airport Performance & Capacity Steering Group and the Airport Performance Network – Europe, as well as the Future Air Mobility Task Force. Online Admin & Update sessions are held at the start of each year to present the Committee’s annual priorities, as well as during the course of the year as required.

Chair: Monika Simonaityte (MAG - Stansted Airport)
Vice-Chair: Davy van Hyfte (Brussels Airport)
ACI EUROPE Representatives: Aidan Flanagan

In practice the Committee fulfils 4 key roles:

• To provide a forum to meet for airport technical and operational professionals with similar (managerial) responsibilities
• To discuss issues of common interest relating to airport technical and operational matters, including safety, capacity and air traffic management
• To survey, assess and present operational practice across all technical domains at the airport through detailed surveys that take place throughout the year and are presented during the Committee meetings
• To guide the work of ACI EUROPE in Brussels (e.g. devising best practices, inputting to studies, informing ACI EUROPE positions on specific issues or regulatory proposals)
  
  

The Committee aims to be flexible and responsive. This means that meeting agendas are tailored to reflect the latest issues and challenges facing the airport sector, and as a result individual agendas can vary considerably. Input is always welcome from Committee members as to what could be discussed at each meeting.

However, a broad set of topics that are discussed often include the following:

Safety regulation

• EASA Rulemaking and other activities
• Airport certification
• RFFS
• ICAO Annex 14 developments
• Ground Handling safety regulation

ATM & Single European Sky

• ATM modernisation
• SESAR Deployment and compliance with PCP regulation
• European ATM Network integration
• Relations between airports and ANSPs
• Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM)
  
  

Airport operations

• New technologies and processes for airport operations
• Sustainable airport operations
• Construction work and airfield renovations
• Crisis preparedness and mitigation
• Incident information, analyses and best practices
• Introduction of new aircraft types
• Cybersecurity in airport operations
  
  

Airport performance and capacity management

• APOC development and airports as Ground Coordinator
• Operational perspectives on slot allocation
• Technology to optimise capacity and links between the airport and airspace
• Punctuality and
• Turnaround performance
  
  

Innovation

• Drones and Advanced Air Mobility
• Remote towers
• Satellite-based systems