Definition
A performance standard used in air traffic flow management that specifies the average degree to which aircraft are expected to comply with assigned arrival or departure times, measured against a planned schedule or metering target.
Plain English
A goal that says, on average, how closely flights should match the times they were told to arrive or depart. It is a yardstick for how well traffic is keeping to its plan.
Context Anchor
Seen in radar, surveillance, and air traffic control system performance discussions, not as a normal cockpit checklist item.
Derivation
The phrase is built from three plain words. 'Target' is the goal being aimed at, 'average' is the typical value across many flights, and 'conformance' comes from Latin 'conformare', meaning to shape to a pattern. Together: how closely, on average, flights are shaping to the planned pattern.
Why Pilots Care
When traffic managers set a target average conformance, controllers may issue speed adjustments, delays, or routing changes to keep the overall flow within that target. Pilots feel this as assigned speeds, holding, or expect-further-clearance times.
Analogy
It is like checking whether pins on a digital map are landing on the correct streets. If the pins are consistently offset, the system needs attention.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as a pilot’s “target average” or score. Here, “target” means a displayed aircraft return, and “conformance” means how well that display matches where the aircraft should appear.
Example Sentence 1
The traffic management unit set a target average conformance of two minutes for arrivals into the metering fix.
Example Sentence 2
If the vibration readings fall below the target average conformance, the engine requires further adjustment.