FAQ: IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SMS)

Safety has always been particularly important in the aviation industry, and this is especially true for airports. Rising traffic figures in aviation present a challenge. Fraport AG maintains its well-known high safety standards at a hub like Frankfurt Airport by continuously reducing the number of safety-related incidents.

Taking a proactive approach to safety is playing an increasingly significant role. This is all about spotting potentially dangerous situations and risks at an early stage and thus avoiding incidents and accidents on a consistent basis. For this to work, all the companies, organizations and individuals working at the airport need to be involved.

The SMS affects all employees at Frankfurt Airport. The operational activities that go on in the movement areas are complex, which is why a wide range of companies and organizations are tasked with handling flight operations. This means that all the companies involved have to commit to upholding Fraport AG’s safety management system.

As we have recognized that everyone shares the responsibility for ensuring maximum safety at our airport, we foster a company-wide safety culture—both internally at Fraport AG and in our cooperation with external service providers. Only if all employees demonstrate this safety awareness and actively embrace it in their day-to-day work will we achieve the lasting safety improvements in flight operations for which we are striving.

The events listed below are typical examples of accidents, identified safety flaws or potential hazards that can impair the safety of flight operations. The list is not exhaustive and is merely intended to provide a better understanding of SMS-related incidents.

• Walking or driving onto the runway system without authorization (runway incursion)
• Obstructing a taxiing aircraft (violating rights of way)
• Damaging aircraft
• Disrupting traffic (e.g. leaving vehicles or equipment in prohibited zones)
• Foreign object debris (FOD)
• Errors when taxiing in
• Bird strike
• Emergency landing
• Aircraft fire
• Contamination with oil

Safety reports and safety notifications are logged and processed as soon as they arrive at the SMS. Categorizing each SMS event against quality criteria and investigating it in detail are key parts of this process.

In cases that lead to findings and/or indications that action will be required, recommendations from the SMS can be issued either on a very general level or to the individuals involved in the process. How the safety recommendations are being implemented and how effective the remedial measures are will be followed up. The person submitting the report will usually receive feedback.

Safety at our airport is everyone’s responsibility. The SMS gives all airport employees the opportunity to report accidents, safety-related incidents, potential dangers and safety-related ideas. These safety reports allow existing safety problems and risks to be identified in time and their potential impact (financial and operational) to be minimized. One of the biggest dangers facing safety at the airport is that unsafe situations develop or incidents remain unnoticed—because they have not been reported—and may keep on happening again until they result in an accident with potentially serious operational and/or financial consequences. Share your observations and findings with us. Don’t assume that someone else has already done so.

Keep your eyes open! By staying watchful during their day-to-day work, everyone can help to minimize risks for themselves and others. For instance, if you see something lying around—also known as foreign object debris, or FOD—do not simply walk past it. Instead, pick it up and dispose of it. This could prevent an accident.

The SMS mainly covers the dangers and processes that can potentially have a negative impact on the operational safety of air traffic at Frankfurt Airport, resulting from procedures and human and technical factors.

The Occupational Health and Safety Unit, by contrast, is geared towards minimizing or completely eliminating risks that could have a direct impact on employees and are caused by the operation of aircraft, systems or equipment. The duties of occupational health and safety thus primarily include preventing accidents at work, avoiding work-related health risks and structuring work ergonomically and humanely—in all the airport’s areas of work.

In aviation, it is important to distinguish between “safety” and “security.”

The former means “safe operations,” while the latter is used in the context of averting external, deliberate (e.g. terrorist-related) dangers not connected to operations.

The SMS specifically relates to the safety (not security) of flight operations at Frankfurt Airport.

In essence, the SMS is underpinned by five pillars:

Process management

Process management identifies and documents all airside safety-related work processes at Frankfurt Airport. It systematically examines processes for potential weaknesses, recommends what action to take and supports its implementation.
  

Reporting

Reporting helps to identify risks and potential dangers and to combat them in time. Airport employees can submit a safety report if they witness a safety-related incident or spot a safety flaw.  
  

Change management

Changes to processes, procedures, services or airport infrastructure can always result in new hazards or changes to the potential risks facing operational safety. Change management serves to identify and assess safety-related changes in advance.
  

Risk management

The job of risk management is to identify risks and evaluate them using a risk matrix when safety reports or notifications are received.
  

Audits

Audits and inspections check whether rules, regulations and processes are being complied with in order to identify strengths, weaknesses and risks within a system.  

Safety Service Office (SSO)

The safety management system at Fraport AG is run by the Safety Manager and their staff, who together make up the Safety Services Office (SSO).The office advises and supports company management as well as all units, process managers and process owners in all operational safety matters. All employees involved in airport operations are given safety training and the opportunity to increase their awareness of the issue. The SSO also coordinates emergency planning at the airport as well as acting as Fraport AG’s representative for safety matters externally in national and international committees and associations.

Executive bodies in the safety management system

The Safety Review Board (SRB) is composed of the Accountable Manager, the heads of the BVD (Ground Services) and FTU (Airside and Terminal Management) units and the head of Corporate Safety and Security as well as experts, nominees and other invitees. The SRB advises the Accountable Manager on changes and new introductions and monitors safety-related aspects of procedures, technologies and organizations. As well as monitoring the effectiveness of the SMS, the SRB is also responsible for ensuring that the necessary (human) resources are in place. If required, it can convene Safety Action Groups and allocate them tasks.

A Safety Action Group (SAG) is made up of managers or experts from the units that bear (joint) responsibility for the relevant processes. They are set up by the SRB and remain in place until they have completed their work. An SAG reviews and analyzes problems, identifies suitable measures and ensures that the action agreed on that basis by the SRB is actually taken.

The Safety Committees support the SMS with their expertise and help to organize, coordinate and launch schemes promoting operational safety. The committees are independent, not required to follow any instructions from third parties regarding their content, and not involved in clarifying questions of fault.

The Runway Safety Team (RST) is composed of representatives of Fraport AG and German Air Navigation Services (DFS), which holds overall responsibility. The team works continuously to gather, observe and analyze all safety-related incidents and situations at the airport with a runway safety element (i.e. the runways in particular).

The Ramp Safety Committee (RSC) is made up of the Safety Manager, the Safety Service Office, a representative of the Operations Manager and anyone else required to be involved. It logs, observes and analyzes safety-related situations and incidents on the apron on an ongoing basis. Operational safety in the apron area is assessed, measures are discussed and safety recommendations designed to prevent future incidents and accidents are issued.

The Construction and Obstacle Routine (COR) addresses safety-related issues connected with infrastructure and obstacles. It involves representatives from the Airside Infrastructure, Flight Operations and Duty Management units and the SSO evaluating construction measures and potential and existing risks and discussing possible action to take.

Any issues to do with wildlife and environmental hazards that also concern operational safety are discussed in the FRA Wildlife Control Committee (WCC). The group of participants on the committee is made up of:

• The Wildlife Control Team (representatives of the Forestry and Biotope units and the Bird Strike Officers)
• Fraport Duty Management, Flight Operations Safety Manager, fire department, horticultural unit
• German committee for the prevention of bird strikes in aviation
• DFS German Air Navigation Services
• The Hessian Transport Ministry as the responsible aviation authority
• Frankfurt nature conservation agency
• Deutsche Lufthansa
• German Federal Police
• Airport Police Authority

The WCC discusses bird strike data and observations, assesses the wildlife risks, identifies and analyzes trends and decides on countermeasures. As managing wildlife risks at an airport involves the highly complex management of habitats and strategies for protected or rare species, all manner of different interest groups are included in communication, cooperation and coordination efforts.

New European guidelines from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have applied since March 2014. These set out detailed provisions governing the design and operation of airdromes within the European Union and the structure of the organizations operating them.  

Regulation (EU) No. 139/2014 requires Fraport AG, as an airport operator, to introduce and maintain a management system that also incorporates a safety management system. Among other things, the safety management system (SMS) must encompass a safety training program that ensures that personnel involved in operating the airport are given the necessary training and competences to perform their duties as part of the SMS.

Specifically, this means that all internal and external holders of red and yellow Airport ID Cards (granting airside access) must successfully complete their basic safety training using an e-learning system and pass the subsequent test before being authorized to access the apron area.

E-learning system also enables learning-success control

An e-learning system provided by Fraport AG and accessible online is used to deliver the training and then also enables learning-success control via tests and documentation. To participate in the e-learning system, all the necessary information sent to each ID card holder in an individual letter. After the training has been completed successfully, the date of the completed test is transmitted to the ID card management system automatically. The training is then valid for five years Employees are automatically asked to undertake the training again well before these five years are up.

If you want to run the training in a different format (e.g. group sessions) for your company or need advice or answers to any questions, please call Safety Management on its hotline +49 69 690 24445 or send an e-mail to safety-schulung@fraport.de.  

The SMS training costs €13 for holders of red and yellow Airport ID Cards and all external ID card holders. The price increase for ID cards of Fraport Group employees is billed via internal cost allocation.