With the coming into effect this November of its new Global Reporting Format for Runway Surface Conditions (GRF), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has agreed to partner with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) on a new joint GRF training programme.
The new online course has been specifically designed for air traffic controllers and aeronautical information service staff, and will be available for enrolment in April of this year on the ICAO Global Aviation Training website. It complements existing courses developed in cooperation with Airports Council International (ACI) for airport operations staff, and with IATA for flight crews.
Dr Fang Liu, ICAO Secretary General emphasized: “Runway safety continues to remain aviation’s biggest safety challenge, representing more than half of all accidents reported to ICAO for commercial operations.”
“We have been collaborating in recent years on numerous initiatives to reduce runway safety-related accidents and incidents worldwide, and the hard work undertaken to forge international consensus on the new GRF, in addition to this new collaborative training course supporting it, should help to deliver substantial runway safety performance improvements,” Dr Liu added.
The ICAO GRF will be effective as of 4 November 2021, and establishes a new methodology for assessing and reporting runway surface conditions to improve take-off and landing performance.
The new agreement is the first of its kind between the three international organizations, and sets the stage for future collaboration on global safety enhancement initiatives.