ICAO, IATA & CANSO to Offer Virtual Runway Safety Training

To prepare air traffic controllers and aeronautical information staff for the new ICAO Global Reporting Format for Runway Surface Conditions (GRF), which goes into effect on 4 November 2021, CANSO, IATA and ICAO have reached a collaboration agreement to develop a virtual training course.

Runway safety-related accidents continue to represent the most significant source of aviation accidents worldwide and remain aviation’s number one safety risk category. Over the past several years, about half of all aviation accidents reported to ICAO were runway safety related. Of those runway-related accidents, 35% were the result of a runway excursion, which occurs when an aircraft veers off or overruns the runway.

The course sets out new ICAO methodology for assessing and reporting runway surface conditions aimed at improved flight crew assessment of take-off and landing performance.

The course will be available for enrolment in April 2021 on the ICAO Global Aviation Training website.

The course content has been preliminarily reviewed by state and regional regulatory bodies to ensure it qualifies as an acceptable means of compliance for the GRF training requirement.

The partnership agreement is the first of its kind between these three major international aviation organisations and sets the stage for future collaboration on global safety enhancement activities.