SAFE 360° - Safety in Aviation Forum for Europe 2026

The Safety in Aviation Forum for Europe (SAFE 360°) brings together people from across the European aviation system to look at our most important safety challenges from a cross-domain perspective.

Rather than examining risks from the viewpoint of individual domains or organisations, SAFE 360° creates a space where airlines, aerodromes, air navigation service providers, manufacturers, maintenance organisations, authorities and other aviation stakeholders can share their different perspectives and learn from each other.

SAFE 360° 2026 will take place at EASA in Cologne on 21 October 2026.

This year's event will be highly interactive. Short presentations and panel discussions will set the scene, but much of the day will be dedicated to discussions between participants: sharing operational experience, challenging assumptions and identifying practical actions that can help improve safety.

SAFE 360° follows the Chatham House Rule, creating an environment where participants can speak openly and share experiences without attribution outside the event.

Who should attend SAFE 360° 2026?

SAFE 360° is aimed particularly at people working directly with aviation safety and operational risks, including representatives from:

• airlines and aircraft operators;
• aerodromes;
• air navigation service providers (ANSPs);
• maintenance organisations;
• manufacturers;
• national aviation authorities;
• aviation associations and staff representatives; and
• other organisations involved in managing aviation safety.

The event is particularly valuable for people who can bring operational experience to the discussions and take the lessons and ideas from SAFE 360° back into their own organisations.

What will we discuss at SAFE 360° 2026?

This year's programme looks at how we can make better use of the safety information already available across the aviation system — and turn that knowledge into meaningful action.

From what happened to why it happened: Occurrence reports are one of aviation's most important sources of safety intelligence. But knowing what happened is only part of the picture. We will explore how we can improve the quality and value of occurrence reporting, particularly the information that helps us understand why an event happened and the operational context surrounding it. Participants will discuss what good reporting looks like and what organisations can do to capture information that is genuinely useful for learning and prevention.

Understanding our risks: what do good SPIs actually look like? Safety Performance Indicators should help organisations understand whether their most important risks are being effectively controlled. But what makes an SPI genuinely useful? This session will bring different parts of the aviation system together to share approaches and explore how SPIs can provide meaningful insight rather than simply generating more data.

Looking to the future: A short interactive session will give participants the opportunity to look beyond today's immediate safety challenges and consider what the aviation system needs to prepare for next. 

Preventing mid-air collisions: what is the data really telling us? Preventing airborne collisions requires collaboration across operators, ANSPs, authorities and the wider aviation community. An opening panel will bring together different perspectives from across the system before participants explore the available information themselves: what is the data telling us, where are the risks, and where should we focus our efforts?

Runway incursion prevention: turning lessons into action: This flash talk will provide an update on initiatives and collaborative actions underway across the European aviation system to reduce runway incursion risk.

Incorrect altimeter settings: when small errors become system risks: Building on the work of the Data4Safety community, this session will look at the findings and future actions from the D4S Directed Study on incorrect altimeter settings. Participants will then discuss potential risk mitigations and how different parts of the aviation system can contribute to reducing the risk.

An event built around discussion

SAFE 360° is deliberately different from a traditional conference. We want participants to contribute, not simply listen.

Throughout the day, presentations and panels will be followed by facilitated table discussions, giving participants the opportunity to share their own experiences and perspectives. The conclusions from those conversations will then be brought back into the room so that the wider community can learn from them. The aim is simple: bring different parts of aviation together, understand our risks from different perspectives and identify what we can do about them.

Terms of participation

SAFE 360° 2026 is an open exchange of ideas where speakers and participants are expected to abide by Just Culture principles.

To create an environment in which participants can speak openly and share operational experiences, all speakers and participants must respect the following Charter of Conduct:

• All information remains the property of the presenting organisation.
• Information shared during SAFE 360° must not be used for any commercial, competitive or punitive purpose.
• Information presented or shared by participants must not be shared externally without the clear and written consent of its owner.
• The event follows the Chatham House Rule: participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of speakers or other participants may be revealed without their permission.
• Audio or video recording and photography of presentations are not permitted.

Anyone who does not respect these terms may be asked to leave the event.