ENAIRE receives the international EFQM 600 Seal of Excellence in business management

Today, at an event held at the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, ENAIRE, Spain's national air navigation service provider, was presented the EFQM Seal, an international recognition of excellence in management, receiving a score of 600.

José Antonio Santano, Secretary of State and President of ENAIRE: “This recognition underscores ENAIRE's commitment to safety, efficiency, innovation and sustainability, as well as its strong engagement with its stakeholders"

This is an excellent result, considering that the maximum score is 700. In 2021, ENAIRE was the first medium/large state-owned company in Spain to receive the EFQM 500 Seal.

EFQM is a management model that encourages the transformation of organisations, and the assessment body is the Club de Excelencia en Gestión, an independent, non-profit business association.

At the event to present the seal, the Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility and ENAIRE's President, José Antonio Santano, said that “this recognition highlights ENAIRE's commitment to the company's safety, efficiency, innovation and sustainability, as well as its firm engagement with its stakeholders”.

Santano noted how important it is for a public organisation like ENAIRE to take steps to improve and measure the services it renders to society through the application of management excellence models.

“This recognition has to provide an important and very timely impetus to the 4,000-plus people who make up the ENAIRE staff, and I say it is very timely because I realise that this year, and particularly in the months of July and August, we have worked hard to make sure that air traffic in Spain continues to enjoy exemplary levels of quality, efficiency, safety and sustainability”, explained Santano.

The Secretary of State noted that in the first seven months of the year, ENAIRE managed over 1.3 million flights (1,341,432), an increase of 8.5% versus the same period in 2023, a record year. This is the January-July with the most traffic in history. The single-day record of flights managed in 2023 has been exceeded 45 times this year.

The record was set on 10 August with 7,886 flights, equivalent to 435 more operations than on the busiest day in 2023. “These figures reflect the enormous effort made, and let us appreciate even more the reason we are gathered here today”, concluded Santano.

Enrique Maurer, ENAIRE's CEO, highlighted how “the high score received is the result of the work of all ENAIRE professionals and the collaboration with our stakeholders, as well as of the over 100 ENAIRE professionals who were involved in this new, six-month assessment of the EFQM Model”.

[From left to right, Enrique Maurer, Tomás Pascual, José Antonio Santano and Ignacio Babé].

The reason for the high score

The score received recognises ENAIRE's strong strategic approach to addressing the challenges facing the sector, as reflected in the company's strategic plan, its Flight Plan 2025, which clearly conveys ENAIRE's purpose (We take care of your flight) and its vision (to be a leading global operator in the air navigation sector)".

ENAIRE's commitment to partnerships is also showcased in the alliances it participates in as a driving force to be a global air navigation operator, as evidenced, for example, by its subsidiary CRIDA (research, development and innovation) or the company STARTICAL (satellite constellation for air navigation).

ENAIRE’s ability to successfully manage this transformation is also noteworthy, with a focus on maintaining safety as its top priority while ensuring smooth and efficient operations. This is driven by its internal talent, international recognition, service experience, and financial capacity for investment, all as part of a firm commitment to innovation and digitisation, with a strong emphasis on delivering excellent service.

The result of the EFQM 600 Seal also provides ENAIRE with 120 opportunities for improvement, which are an essential reference to progress further. These include boosting its ability to transform in a changing environment, further implementing artificial intelligence, enhancing ENAIRE's leadership role in areas like sustainability, consolidating its relationship model with stakeholders, continuing to make progress in innovation, improving its processes, and having more comprehensive measures of the progress of its strategy.

ENAIRE was the first medium/large state-owned company in Spain to receive this quality seal.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for four years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 600 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.