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CANSO announces 2025 safety award winners

Industry
Austro Control, NAV CANADA and Skyguide are joint winners
Alex Bristol, CEO of Skyguide (left) Simon Hocquard, director general of CANSO (right) (Image: CANSO)

Air Navigation Service Provider trade association CANSO has named Austro Control, NAV CANADA and Skyguide as the recipients of its Global Safety Achievement Award 2025.

The award recognises the individuals, teams, or companies that have made a significant contribution to aviation safety in the past twelve months. The shared award this year goes to Austro Control, NAV CANADA and Skyguide.
 
Austro Control, NAV CANADA and Skyguide combined safety knowledge and developed a methodology to measure and analyse safety culture across three countries using a combined methods approach, involving an online survey and facilitated online workshops co-moderated by experts from each other’s organisations. The benchmarking project allows ANSPs to improve safety using comprehensive data-driven analysis by assessing cultural strengths and identifying areas for development. The survey allows the organisations to measure quick points broken down into different core demographics. 
 
The approach includes analysis and visualisation techniques, using a Power BI dashboard and enables the organisations to benchmark their safety culture. The three ANSPs also carried out joint safety exchange workshops, allowing key safety and ops roles to openly share best practices and ideas. By benchmarking results using a shared dashboard, they created a cost-effective, practical way to enhance safety performance.
 
This initiative not only sets a new standard for industry-wide collaboration but also paves the way for a future CANSO service, helping ANSPs worldwide to strengthen their safety culture and operational excellence.
 
Speaking at the CANSO Global Safety Conference 2025 Dinner at the Airforce Museum in Christchurch last week, Simon Hocquard, director general of CANSO said, “We are very proud to give this award to Austro Control, NAV Canada and Skyguide as it symbolises that dedicated partnership and collaboration pave the way for greater safety and efficiency in our industry.”
 
Alex Bristol, CEO of Skyguide said, "I love the fact that people from all three organisations are working together, talking together, being open and transparent, and learning from each other."