8 Conclusions
A Mature Partnership in a Shifting Landscape
The 2025 edition of the Brazil-Europe Comparison Report marks a significant milestone in the long-term collaboration between DECEA and EUROCONTROL. This year’s work reinforces the value of bi-regional benchmarking as a tool for validating ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) indicators in diverse operational contexts. The data reveals that both regions have moved beyond recovery, with Brazil consistently operating above 2019 traffic levels and Europe consolidating its network-wide stability.
Key Operational Insights
The technical analysis across the Key Performance Areas (KPAs) has identified several critical takeaways:
System Resilience and Scalability: A standout finding is the decoupling of traffic growth from workforce expansion in Brazil. By maintaining a stable ATCO headcount (0.1% change) while managing increased movements, DECEA has demonstrated high levels of operational efficiency and successful technological integration.
Fleet Mix and Throughput Constraints: The report identifies a structural disparity in fleet composition. The high proportion of Light aircraft in Brazil (up to 30% at some airports) introduces wake-turbulence complexities not seen in the Medium/Heavy dominated European hubs. This affects “achievable” throughput comparisons between the two regions.
Infrastructure and Density: With European traffic density nearly five times that of Brazil, the European system operates under higher pressure. However, benchmarking single-runway hubs like London Gatwick and Lisbon shows a “growth dividend” for Brazilian airports like Santos Dumont (SBRJ) to exploit as demand matures. This also offers growth potential for other Brazilian operations.
Predictability and Scheduling Buffers: Distinct punctuality signatures were observed. Brazil’s high rate of “early arrivals” (29% in 2025) suggests conservative scheduling by operators, whereas Europe’s delays (26% late arrivals) are driven by network-wide capacity constraints and reactionary effects.
Tactical Operational Efficiency: Efficiency is specifically measured through the lens of additional time during high-workload phases:
- Surface Movement (Taxi-Out): Additional taxi-out time provides a direct indicator of departure management and airport congestion.
- Terminal Arrival Phase (ASMA): Additional ASMA time highlights the efficiency of sequencing and metering into the terminal area.
Evolution of Methodology
This edition continues the evolution toward additional topic-centric analysis. The introduction of initial studies on Horizontal Flight Efficiency (HFE) and runway slot pressure provide the basis for expansion of future reports.
The introduction of HFE to this report portfolio a shift toward expanding the reported network-wide performance measures matures.
The runway slot pressure investigation offers to provide additional analysis on the behaviour of the airport centric measures during peak and non-peak traffic situations. It may also help to inform and validate on-going work on the international level. may expand on a more granular performance management.
The Way Forward
The DECEA-EUROCONTROL partnership remains committed to the continuous improvement of ATM performance. It is planned to augment the report and its future editions with a rolling web-based monitoring, including regular updates of the underlying data. With these regular updates and future report editions the time series of the different measures will be continuously tracked. As witnessed by this report, the continual expansion of the scope is facilitated through the initial deep dives reported. This forms the basis to refine future editions.
The joint work will also help to promote the approach and state-of-the-art with the international benchmarking community. Both groups are contributing to the ICAO GANP Performance Expert Group (GANP-PEG) and the multi-national Performance Benchmarking Working Group (PBWG). The continued harmonisation of the performance related data, the refinement of the guidance material and application of the performance framework start paying dividends. For example, PBWG concluded in its most recent meeting to collaborate on topics of mutual interest for which this report supports the continued research and validation with international partners.