The 32nd CANSO GBWG (Global Benchmarking Work Group) was held at the Mita Conference Hall in Tokyo from February 18th to 20th, 2020.
GBWG is one of the Work Groups of CANSO, which is composed of air navigation service providers around the world. GBWG evaluates, verifies and analyzes cost-efficiency and productivity indicators with the aim of optimizing management, services and fees. There are 27 participating countries from 5 regions around the world, and Japan has been participating since 2014.
At this meeting, we discussed mainly the following three agenda items.
(1) Analysis of trends in indicators over the past 10 years
(2) Analysis of initiatives in countries where indicators are continuously improving
(3) Cooperation on indicator data between EURO member countries (non-GBWG participating countries) and GBWG participating countries.
In (1), the increase in air traffic volume compared to the cost required for air traffic control operations was significant, confirming that the cost efficiency index has improved in many participating countries.
In (2), a presentation was made on indicators related to the productivity of air traffic controllers in Japan (total flight time of aircraft divided by total working time of air traffic controllers). Participating countries were very interested, asked many questions, and had lively discussions. We believe that the presentations and discussions have shown that air traffic control operations in Japan are at a high level.
In (3), we discussed how to coordinate the indicators of EURO member countries (non-GBWG members) and GBWG members in order to improve the reliability of each indicator. Although this initiative has been discussed for a long time, it has not been realized due to problems such as differences in data collection timing, but it is a great step forward that after the discussion, we agreed to start with the parts where we can collaborate.
We have been preparing for the conference since last year, but this year the new coronavirus has become a serious problem. As a result of coordinating with the CANSO Secretariat, the meeting was held with countermeasures taken. It was unfortunate that the planned first attendance from China was canceled. We were able to carry out the planned agenda as scheduled, and received a lot of thanks from the participating countries.