Short and long-term recommendations
Testing solutions
The good news is that GAPPRI offers near-term actions as well as future solutions involving the introduction of new technologies. In fact, the report includes 127 recommendations across all stakeholder groups.
The main recommendations include:
Empowering and equipping aviation personnel
Integration of advanced technologies
Enhanced procedures for runway operations
Enhanced communication protocols
Enhanced aerodrome visual aids
Risk mitigation through infrastructure design
Enhanced safety management and support for runway safety teams.
Empowering aviation personnel relies on a culture that promotes mental readiness and fatigue awareness. The aim is to prioritise safe runway operations, nurture positive team dynamics and encourage informed decision-making. The continued development of enhanced and recurrent training, specifically focusing on scenarios involving runway incursions, will be vital.
Even so, technological improvements will likely be most critical to reducing runway incursions. New systems can provide real-time awareness of aircraft and vehicle positions, navigation route assistance, detection of deviations, and timely alerts for potential runway incursions and collisions. GAPPRI suggests a priority should be immediate alerts for air traffic controllers, pilots and manoeuvring area vehicle drivers in the event of a potential collision or unauthorised runway entry.
Infrastructure design will also improve going forward. The basic idea is to minimise the need to cross runways. Such visual aids as runway and taxiway signs, markings and lights can also be improved and must be made clearly visible, particularly in adverse weather conditions. Additional signage at critical intersections is also recommended.
GAPPRI reports that its next steps include
Collaboration among stakeholders to review the plan’s recommendations and assess their relevance.
Identification of the best practices for implementing the relevant recommendations.
Conducting an appropriate impact assessment when deciding how to implement the recommendations.
Implementing specific actions and monitoring their effectiveness.
Sharing lessons learned with the industry.
Proactive response
According to the Flight Safety Foundation, one of the partners involved in GAPPRI, the report “is intended to serve as a roadmap for addressing risk and instilling resilience, enabling government and industry not only to cope with increases in traffic but also to be proactive in anticipating and addressing problems”.
GAPPRI emphasises the following high-level findings:
Variability in human performance
Degraded runway status awareness
Lack of systemwide collision avoidance barriers
Miscommunication and coordination
Challenges in surface navigation.
Human performance is often at the root of runway incursion incidents. The complex operational conditions can lead to miscommunication, misidentification, or misapplication of operational processes.
Indeed, a prevalent theme in incidents is a breakdown in communication and coordination between air traffic controllers and pilots, such as aircraft crossing paths due to misunderstood instructions, a language barrier or differing communication channels.
Unfortunately, though a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) exists in the skies, aircraft don’t have that layer when they are on the ground. Aircraft manufacturers are working on the problem and such ground-based technologies as ASMGCS2 and ASDE-X3 do help. But the latter are expensive and only applicable to larger airports.
As for surface navigation, aircraft or vehicles on runways can sometimes find themselves in the wrong position due to procedural lapses, inadequacies in navigation capabilities and guidance, or insufficiencies in aerodrome signage, markings and lighting.
As air traffic resumes its growth trajectory it is likely that runway incursions will increase unless more is done to avert the risk. Fortunately, work has already started with the publication of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions (GAPPRI). The guidance was compiled following consultation with more than 200 aviation experts from 80 organisations around the world and is based on its European-focused predecessor.
James Lewis from Think Research – in his role as lead on the airports’ subgroup of the CANSO Safety Programme’s Next Generation Safety Management System’s (SMS) workgroup – coordinated the air traffic management aspect and received feedback from several CANSO members.
“We spoke with air navigation service providers (ANSPs) from around the world,” he says. “It was important that we had a global perspective because runway incursions can happen anywhere.”
How and why they happen, though, varies enormously. Larger organisations in busy aviation markets need to finesse already sophisticated operations but other ANSPs also have to deal with more prosaic problems, such as wildlife getting on the runway.
Even so, Lewis identified more common ground than might be expected. Runway stop bars are a very effective mitigation that should be prioritised and can be applicable to most ground infrastructure, for example.
“And all organisations could benefit from simplified language,” Lewis continues. “Communicating in English is a vital tool in preventing runway incursions by increasing shared situational awareness but many locations don’t routinely use English. If we can come up with some easier phraseology and insert that into standardised procedures, it could go a long way to all stakeholders in all locations having better situational awareness.”
For Lewis, however, the most important finding was the need for collaboration. “Runway incursions usually have a combination of factors so no single party can solve the problem on its own,” he adds. “Every stakeholder will need to play their part to establish aligned recommendations that mitigate the risk for everybody.”
Runway incursions are a constant danger to aviation as highlighted by the tragic incident in Japan at the start of 2024.
The good news is that GAPPRI offers near-term actions as well as future solutions involving the introduction of new technologies. In fact, the report includes 127 recommendations across all stakeholder groups.
The main recommendations include:
Empowering and equipping aviation personnel
Integration of advanced technologies
Enhanced procedures for runway operations
Enhanced communication protocols
Enhanced aerodrome visual aids
Risk mitigation through infrastructure design
Enhanced safety management and support for runway safety teams.
Empowering aviation personnel relies on a culture that promotes mental readiness and fatigue awareness. The aim is to prioritise safe runway operations, nurture positive team dynamics and encourage informed decision-making. The continued development of enhanced and recurrent training, specifically focusing on scenarios involving runway incursions, will be vital.
Even so, technological improvements will likely be most critical to reducing runway incursions. New systems can provide real-time awareness of aircraft and vehicle positions, navigation route assistance, detection of deviations, and timely alerts for potential runway incursions and collisions. GAPPRI suggests a priority should be immediate alerts for air traffic controllers, pilots and manoeuvring area vehicle drivers in the event of a potential collision or unauthorised runway entry.
Infrastructure design will also improve going forward. The basic idea is to minimise the need to cross runways. Such visual aids as runway and taxiway signs, markings and lights can also be improved and must be made clearly visible, particularly in adverse weather conditions. Additional signage at critical intersections is also recommended.
GAPPRI reports that its next steps include
Collaboration among stakeholders to review the plan’s recommendations and assess their relevance.
Identification of the best practices for implementing the relevant recommendations.
Conducting an appropriate impact assessment when deciding how to implement the recommendations.
Implementing specific actions and monitoring their effectiveness.
Sharing lessons learned with the industry.
Short and long-term recommendations
According to the Flight Safety Foundation, one of the partners involved in GAPPRI, the report “is intended to serve as a roadmap for addressing risk and instilling resilience, enabling government and industry not only to cope with increases in traffic but also to be proactive in anticipating and addressing problems”.
GAPPRI emphasises the following high-level findings:
Variability in human performance
Degraded runway status awareness
Lack of systemwide collision avoidance barriers
Miscommunication and coordination
Challenges in surface navigation.
Human performance is often at the root of runway incursion incidents. The complex operational conditions can lead to miscommunication, misidentification, or misapplication of operational processes.
Indeed, a prevalent theme in incidents is a breakdown in communication and coordination between air traffic controllers and pilots, such as aircraft crossing paths due to misunderstood instructions, a language barrier or differing communication channels.
Unfortunately, though a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) exists in the skies, aircraft don’t have that layer when they are on the ground. Aircraft manufacturers are working on the problem and such ground-based technologies as ASMGCS2 and ASDE-X3 do help. But the latter are expensive and only applicable to larger airports.
As for surface navigation, aircraft or vehicles on runways can sometimes find themselves in the wrong position due to procedural lapses, inadequacies in navigation capabilities and guidance, or insufficiencies in aerodrome signage, markings and lighting.
Proactive response
As air traffic resumes its growth trajectory it is likely that runway incursions will increase unless more is done to avert the risk. Fortunately, work has already started with the publication of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions (GAPPRI). The guidance was compiled following consultation with more than 200 aviation experts from 80 organisations around the world and is based on its European-focused predecessor.
James Lewis from Think Research – in his role as lead on the airports’ subgroup of the CANSO Safety Programme’s Next Generation Safety Management System’s (SMS) workgroup – coordinated the air traffic management aspect and received feedback from several CANSO members.
“We spoke with air navigation service providers (ANSPs) from around the world,” he says. “It was important that we had a global perspective because runway incursions can happen anywhere.”
How and why they happen, though, varies enormously. Larger organisations in busy aviation markets need to finesse already sophisticated operations but other ANSPs also have to deal with more prosaic problems, such as wildlife getting on the runway.
Even so, Lewis identified more common ground than might be expected. Runway stop bars are a very effective mitigation that should be prioritised and can be applicable to most ground infrastructure, for example.
“And all organisations could benefit from simplified language,” Lewis continues. “Communicating in English is a vital tool in preventing runway incursions by increasing shared situational awareness but many locations don’t routinely use English. If we can come up with some easier phraseology and insert that into standardised procedures, it could go a long way to all stakeholders in all locations having better situational awareness.”
For Lewis, however, the most important finding was the need for collaboration. “Runway incursions usually have a combination of factors so no single party can solve the problem on its own,” he adds. “Every stakeholder will need to play their part to establish aligned recommendations that mitigate the risk for everybody.”
Runway incursions are a constant danger to aviation as highlighted by the tragic incident in Japan at the start of 2024.