Early indications show an unprecedented nonprofit, peer-to-peer collaboration among the world’s airports making solid progress toward enhanced runway safety and the mitigation of airport-related risks. In a March update briefing for AeroSafety World, Airports Council International (ACI) recalled how its member airports unanimously voted in November 2010 to launch the Airport Excellence in Safety (APEX) initiative.
At that time, ACI World, the organization’s headquarters in Montreal, envisioned that APEX would rest on pillars of “documentation, training and mutual assistance based on a strong airport-to-airport mentoring program,” with runway safety as the top priority. The APEX reference document says, “According to the International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program [USOAP] … of the total number of states audited, 70 percent did not establish or implement a runway safety program to prevent runway incursions; 44 percent …
