Definition
Engineered Performance Standards (EPS) are formally established benchmarks used by the FAA to define expected output, capacity, or workload levels for air traffic control facilities and operations. They are derived through analytical study of staffing, equipment, traffic volume, and procedures, and serve as the official measure of how much work a facility or position should be able to handle under defined conditions.
Plain English
EPS is the FAA's official yardstick for how much work an air traffic facility is set up to handle. It is built from careful study of staffing, equipment, and traffic, and tells managers what a normal, expected workload looks like.
Context Anchor
A pilot may see EPS in FAA acronym lists, technical airport information, safety documents, or other FAA material where a design or system is being judged by its required performance.
Derivation
‘Engineered’ comes from the Latin ingenium, meaning skill or cleverness, and here signals that the standards are built through deliberate analysis rather than guesswork. ‘Performance Standards’ simply means agreed-upon measures of expected output. Together the phrase emphasises that these benchmarks are designed and calculated, not estimated.
Why Pilots Care
If EPS appears in FAA material, it usually signals that a system or design feature has been evaluated against a required performance level. That can affect whether a runway, airport feature, or procedure is considered acceptable for use.
Intuition Check
Do not read “engineered” as meaning simply “complicated” or “mechanical.” Here it means the standard is based on engineering analysis and required performance.
Example Sentence 1
The facility manager referenced the Engineered Performance Standards when justifying additional controller staffing for the busy arrival period.
Example Sentence 2
Maintenance reviewed the EPS figures before approving the modified aircraft for its next performance test flight.