This first volume covers the agreed recommendations, while the second volume, planned for release in early February, provides explanatory and guidance material, and related best practices for implementation of the recommendations.

Runway excursions are:

• the most frequent accident type in aviation
• one of the most serious risks in aviation
• one of the most economically significant safety events

The risk for runway excursion combines a series of factors involving different aviation segments. Addressing the risk can only be done in sync and collaboratively, its success being dependent on a joint and coordinated effort of all the aviation players.

GAPPRE is truly a “from industry for industry” initiative, guided by the principle of addressing both the risk and the resilience factors. The six working groups developed recommendations, based on a rarely seen consensus by the global aviation industry on best practices and interventions beyond simple regulatory compliance. These recommendations are synonym with “going the extra mile”, hence compliance with international, regional and national rules and regulations in a pre-requisite.

The scope of the work done by the international team, led by Flight Safety Foundation and Eurocontrol, is manifold. Firstly, it aims to promote a set of selected, proven solutions that are not yet “standard” (not used by all stakeholders) but that have been proven to be effective in reducing the risk of runway excursions, based on data analysis and lessons learnt. Moreover, the report provides research and development recommendations for issues without maturity for immediate implementation, but with clear potential for high-risk mitigation benefits.

The result is an unmatched set of recommendations for different time horizons – some can be implemented immediately, and some may require up to 10 years for technology maturation and implementation. GAPPRE creates a robust roadmap for the industry to reduce the risk of runway excursions, starting right now.

Ultimately, as the recommendations kept a high degree of generality and functionality, it will be for the responsible organisations to decide specific implementation details, after taking local conditions and specific context into account.

This year’s Safety Forum, taking place on the 11^th of February, will have “runway excursions” as its theme and will be used as the launch conference for the GAPPRE Report.