Technical, Operations & Safety Committee

ACI E Technical Operations Safety Committee clearACI 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 morning of the first day, 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.

Meetings of the Single European Sky (SES) Steering Group and Safety Regulation Steering Group (SRSG) typically take place in the weeks preceding the TOSC meetings. The Committee also draws on the work of the Drone Task Force and the Airport Performance Network – Europe. Online Admin & Update sessions are held in the weeks prior to Committee plenary meetings, in order to brief members on the outcome of the subgroup meetings, and at the start of each year to present the Committee’s annual priorities.

Chair: Libor Kurzweil (Prague Airport)
Vice-Chair: Monika Simonaityte (MAG - Stansted 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 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 Urban Air Mobility
  • Remote towers
  • Satellite-based systems