Not every operational threat carries the same risk on every flight. A runway restriction, deteriorating weather or challenging approach can demand greater attention depending on the conditions. Airport Briefing’s Adaptive TEM aims to identify and prioritise these threats, giving pilots a more focused, flight-specific risk assessment rather than a static list of airport hazards.
Developed by Synapse Aviation, Adaptive Threat and Error Management (Adaptive TEM) is designed to combine weather, NOTAMs, terrain, runway configurations and operational procedures to produce risk-ranked briefings.
For flight operations and safety departments, more consistent threat assessments could improve briefing standardisation, while records of crew briefing engagement could support oversight.
How Does Adaptive TEM Work?
Airport Briefing says Adaptive TEM evaluates operational information using predefined rules and deterministic risk-assessment logic.
Its evaluation engine draws on more than 300 million operational data points worldwide, including aeronautical information derived from Lufthansa Systems’ Lido Sky Data.
The system incorporates AIRAC-cycle aeronautical updates alongside changing operational information, including weather and NOTAMs.
Threats are classified as high, medium or low risk, accompanied by suggested mitigations. Categories include Environment, Airport, ATC & Airspace, Operational, Aircraft and Human Factors.
The operational value lies not simply in identifying hazards, but in helping crews understand which threats deserve particular attention for the flight being prepared.
From Static Hazards to Changing Operational Risk
An airport’s physical characteristics may remain unchanged, but the operational significance of its hazards can vary considerably.
Airport Briefing says Adaptive TEM is designed to take changing conditions into account when evaluating threats.
Consider an arrival at an airport surrounded by high terrain. In clear daylight, terrain may be a routine briefing item. If the cloud base lowers and visibility deteriorates, or a NOTAM removes the preferred approach, the same terrain may demand much greater attention.
Ranking threats is only part of the test. The real measure of an adaptive system is whether its priorities change appropriately as conditions change.
What Role Does AI Play?
Airport Briefing says the system uses deterministic operational rules rather than generative AI to determine risk levels.
Artificial intelligence supports other processes, including NOTAM interpretation assistance and operational data management.
This matters in a safety-critical environment. A rules-based engine can produce consistent, repeatable assessments, but repeatability alone does not guarantee accuracy. That depends on the underlying data and decision criteria.
For airline safety departments, a particularly relevant consideration is how AI-assisted NOTAM interpretation is checked before that information is used in operational briefings.
What Does This Mean for Flight Operations?
For pilots, the immediate benefit could be a more focused briefing, particularly when operating into unfamiliar airports or dealing with changing conditions.
For flight operations departments, consistent threat classifications could support standardised briefing practices across different routes, fleets and operating environments.
Safety management teams may find additional value in structured threat assessments and records of crew briefing engagement, potentially supporting Safety Management System oversight.
A fixed airport hazard summary cannot show whether a threat has become more important since it was written. That is where adaptive briefing technology could offer a meaningful advantage, if its reassessments prove reliable in day-to-day operations.
The effectiveness of such systems will ultimately depend on the accuracy of their data, the quality of their evaluation rules and how well they fit into an operator’s existing procedures.
