Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2016
The aviation community is currently faced with various approaches for the determination of Target Levels of Safety (TLS). The targets are usually derived for a specific airspace region, for a specific type of operation or a specific phase of flight. Therefore, current practices support the determination of TLS for specific aviation components in isolation. This paper argues that the setting of a new safety target for aviation has to be driven by an integrated system approach. Relevant past research on TLS is reviewed and augmented with the results from operational reports from two countries. A possible safety target for the year 2020 is suggested and scoped down to estimate the safety budget for air traffic control (ATC) equipment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and recommends useful practices to achieve the proposed integrated safety approach.