Federal Aviation Administration Invests Over $100 Million to Prevent Runway Accidents

An American Airlines plane takes off from Miami International Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it had slowed the volume of airplane traffic over Florida due to an air traffic computer issue in Miami on Jan. 2, 2023. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is spending more than $100 million to help reduce runway incursions at airports across the country.

The funding will go to 12 airports across the United States, including Miami International Airport, San Diego International Airport, and Bellingham International Airport in Washington, among others, according to a statement.

Funding will be used to construct taxiways, rebuild runways and install airfield lighting, among other things.

“Some airfields have complex layouts that can create confusion for pilots and other airport users,” said FAA Associate Administrator Shannetta R. Griffin, P.E. “This funding will reconfigure complex taxiway and runway intersections to help prevent incursions and enhance the safety of the National Airspace System.”

The announcement comes after several near misses at U.S. airports this year, including a recent collision at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, during which a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 was reportedly damaged after hitting another plane, causing significant damage to its nose and fuselage.

According to the FAA announcement, the top beneficiaries of the latest investment are Tucson International Airport, which will be awarded $33.1 million to construct a taxiway and “shift and rebuild runway to be further away from a parallel runway,” and San Diego International Airport, which will receive $24 million to construct a new taxiway.

The FAA says funding will “eliminate the need for aircraft to back-taxi on the runway.”

Funding Specifics

Harry Reid International Airport will be awarded $13.4 million to reconfigure four taxiways, meet safety standards, move two runways, and install runway status and guard lights, the FAA said, noting that runway status lights alert pilots and others if it is not safe to enter the runway.

Republic Airport will also be awarded $12.4 million.

San Jose International Airport will receive $10.8 million. Prescott International Airport will receive $7.4 million, as will Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.

Miami International Airport will get $6 million; Bellingham International Airport $1.3 million; and Pensacola International Airport $1.17 million.

Additionally, Waverly Municipal Airport will receive $223,000 to construct a parallel taxiway, and Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport will be awarded $844,000 for two parallel taxiways, which will remove the need for aircraft to back-taxi on the runway, the FAA said.

The agency’s Runway Incursion Mitigation Program, launched in 2015, is being used to fund the annual grant money.

The program identifies airports where risk factors, such as airfield layouts and complexity, might contribute to a runway incursion. On Twitter, the FAA said it had seen a 78 percent reduction in the incursion rate at 93 airports since the program was implemented.

‘Serious’ Runway Incidents Declining

There were 18 “serious” runway incursions in the United States in 2022, according to FAA data cited by Flying Magazine, up from the five serious incursions reported in 2010 but down from the high of 32 reported in 2007.

A “serious“ incursion is defined by the FAA as an incident in which a collision was ”narrowly avoided“ or in which there is ”significant potential for a collision.”

While serious runway incidents have generally declined over the past 20 years, data for 2022 shows that there were at least 1,633 runway incursions at U.S. airports, up from the 1,372 reported in 2012.

Data for April shows there were 0.44 serious incursions per 1 million takeoffs and landings in April, down from nearly 1.0 per 1 million takeoffs in January.

In its announcement Tuesday, the FAA noted that it had introduced several new technologies aimed at preventing incursions and bolstering situational awareness among pilots and controllers, including improved Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE)—a surveillance system using radar—and ASDE-X Taxiway Arrival Prediction to help predict when a pilot lines up to land on a taxiway.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said officials are seeing “early and preliminary indications that the level of severe runaway incursions is coming closer to the norm,” adding that while the department is placing significant investments in increasing situational awareness among pilots and controllers, “sometimes the best technology is concrete.”

“That’s why some of what you’re seeing are the construction of these end-around taxiways that mean one less potential conflict point where a plane lines up.”