AASHTO Journal - FAA Holding Runway Safety Meetings with 90 Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to hold a series of runway safety meetings at roughly 90 airports between now and the end of September to reduce the number of near-collisions between aircraft on the ground.

[Above photo by Jacob Kang for the FAA]

The agency noted that these meetings result from a “Call to Action” held in February to following a string of near-collision incidents on U.S. airport runways across the country. That “Call to Action” also resulted in a “Safety Summit” in March where the FAA and aviation community “recommitted” to the pursuit of zero serious close calls.

“Sharing information is critical to improving safety,” said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, in a statement. “These meetings, along with other efforts, will help us achieve our goal of zero close calls.”

The FAA said that runway safety meetings include representatives from the FAA’s air traffic organization, airlines, pilots, airport vehicle drivers, and others help pinpoint and address airport-specific surface operation risks.

The agency noted that major airports with upcoming runway safety meetings include Ronald Reagan Washington National, La Guardia New York, Dallas-Fort Worth International, Cleveland Hopkins International, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, Reno/Tahoe International, and Birmingham Shuttlesworth International.

The FAA also recently awarded more than $121 million to airports across the country to reduce the risk of runway incursions. Projects will reconfigure taxiways that may cause confusion, install new lighting systems and provide more flexibility on the airfield.

“The FAA is serious about ending runway incursions and we are putting substantial resources behind our efforts,” said Shannetta Griffin, FAA’s associate administrator for airports, in a separate statement.

“In some cases the best way to address safety risks is modifying or reconfiguring existing airfields,” she added. “These grants directly address those situations.”