December 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of the first heavier than air controlled, powered flight by the Wright Brothers. Since then the aviation business has changed beyond all recognition and in doing so has shrunk the globe and profoundly affected global business and the way we live. The continuing speed of change and rapid growth have resulted in a complex array of challenges for managers including: increasing congestion of infrastructure, safety, sustainability, environmental and social opposition to aircraft operations, airport and air traffic privatisation and commercialization, alliances and mergers between airlines, deregulation of markets, the operation of new larger aircraft, and the continued rise of low cost carriers. Such pressures have led many managers, planners and regulators to use Benchmarking to measure and manage performance. The main players will depend heavily on inter organisational learning if they are to meet the challenges of a market forecast to double in size over the next 15 years. In civil aviation Benchmarking in its various guises may offer the potential of: • Providing information to meet the needs of managers and planners in a volatile market environment • Offering possible solutions drawn from best practice elsewhere in the industry • Offering a means of improving efficiency through learning both within organizations and between organisations • Facilitating effective economic and environmental regulation • Maintaining and improving air transport safety through sharing information and knowledge. This e-book includes papers that cover a variety of aspects of benchmarking drawn from different parts of civil aviation: Airports Airlines and Air Traffic control