Executive Summary

The Brazilian Department of Airspace Control (DECEA) Performance Section and the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Unit (PRU) jointly produced this initial bi-regional performance report using commonly agreed metrics and definitions to compare, understand and improve air the performance of navigation services (ANS).

This report focusses on 2016 through 2019, i.e. pre-COVID pandemic years, and is complemented by a COVID Briefing on air traffic developments during 2020 and the first part of 2021. This decision supports to remove the influence on operational performance caused by the unprecedented constraints on air transportation during the COVID pandemic and establishes a baseline for future editions. Both reports are made available online at https://ansperformance.eu/global/brazil/ representing a first implementation of a rolling bi-regional ANS performance monitoring activity.

This initial report focusses on a subset of the eleven ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) Key Performance Areas (KPA) (ICAO 2005, Appendix D). While the primacy of Safety is fully recognised, the scope of this report is limited to operational ANS performance of the KPAs Predictability, Capacity, and Efficiency. Excellence in operational performance will positively influence safety.

From an indicator perspective, DECEA Performance Section and EUROCONTROL PRU agreed to collaborate on the basis of the performance indicators coordinated by ICAO as part of the recent update of the GANP (ICAO 2016). These indicators form a lingua franca and are currently used within various regional and multi-national benchmarking reports. The work takes also into account the conventions made and elaborated by the multi-lateral Performance Benchmarking Working Group (PBWG).2

For this initial report a subset of Key Performance Areas (KPA) and subsequent performance indicators was chosen:

  • Predictability: arrival and departure punctuality;
  • Capacity: peak arrival and departure throughput, and capacity utilisation; and
  • Efficiency: additional taxi-in and taxi-out time, and additional time in terminal airspace.

The goal of this report is to foster the common understanding and interpretation of the ICAO GANP KPIs and perform a systematic analysis of the operational air navigation system performance of the regional air traffic management systems in a coherent manner.

The comparison shows similarities and differences in the air navigation service provision and observed performance in both regions. Based on this, several ideas for future research have been identified for further joint development and complementation of the performance framework. Major take-aways for this report include:

  • Overall, air navigation service provision is more fragmented in Europe with a higher number of local/national air navigation service providers and their respective control units. The integrated civil/military service provision is inherent to the organisation of DECEA and the Brazilian system, while in Europe a mix of co-location and integration exists and strongly depends on local/national arrangements.

  • Air traffic growth showed different patterns in both regions. Traffic at the busiest airports in Brazil is comparable to European airports. Brazil has observed lower demand following the economic crisis in 2015. However, for the 2016 – 2019 horizon of this report, the peak day traffic and throughput at the studied airports remained fairly constant. Traffic and capacity levels for the busiest Brazilian airports are similar to the traffic levels observed at the lower end of the top-10 airports in Europe. In that respect, performance and challenges within both regions are comparable.

  • Predictability and associated punctuality performance showed a higher variability on the Brazilian side. This result could be influenced by the data collection process.

  • The capacity comparisons showed some contrasts between the two regions. Brazil increased the declared capacity across the study airport for the period 2016 – 2019, while it remained constant at European airports. With some Brazilian airports operating at high declared capacity values comparable to European counterparts, higher arrival and departure peaks are observed in Europe.

  • Acknowledging the differences in overall traffic, operational efficiency performance during the ground phase (taxi-in and taxi-out) showed similar patterns in Brazil and Europe. For the 2016 – 2019 horizon, this report showed similar bounds for taxi-in and taxi-out performance. Overall, the taxi-out performance was more varied in Brazil than in Europe. Observed enhancements in Brazil can be linked to the wider implementation of surface movement enhancement programmes

This initial report will be updated throughout the coming years under the umbrella of the DECEA-EUROCONTROL memorandum of cooperation. The idea is to establish a web-based rolling monitoring updated on a regular basis. Future editions will also enable to complement data time series and support the development of further use-case analyses. The lessons learnt of this joint project will also be coordinated with the multi-national PBWG and ICAO GANP Study sub-group concerned with the further development of the GANP KPIs.

  1. PBWG members include at the time of writing: CAA Singapore, Aerothai Thailand, Japan JCAB, Brazil DECEA, United States FAA/ATO, and EUROCONTROL. The working group aims to develop harmonised guidance material for the application of the ICAO GANP KPIs↩︎