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The FAA announced Thursday that it is launching a new surface safety tool called Approach Runway Verification at air traffic control towers around the country to improve airport safety. The new tool is already installed at several towers around the nation and is one of three surface situational awareness solutions that make up the FAA's surface safety portfolio.
ARV provides controllers with visual and audible alerts if an approaching aircraft lines up to land on the wrong airport surface or the wrong airport. When aircraft approach the airport, the controller will issue a landing clearance to a specific runway. The pilot may believe they are aligned with the right runway, but could inadvertently be lined up with an adjacent runway or taxiway. The new ARV tool will alert the controller if the aircraft has not aligned with the runway surface as instructed.
This tool is part of a trio from the FAA's safety portfolio, including the Runway Incursion Device and the Surface Awareness Initiative. The technologies employed are agile, efficient and cost-effective. RID serves as a memory aid for controllers, providing additional situational awareness of occupied or closed runways. RID provides an audible and visual alert to the controllers when a runway is not available for the departing or landing aircraft. SAI uses cost-effective and commercially available technologies that display surface traffic to controllers at airports that do not have a surface surveillance tool.
ARV is currently deployed at several airports across the country and the FAA will deploy the tool at other facilities throughout the rest of 2024 and into 2025.
The new ARV tool is installed at numerous air traffic control towers including:
• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
• Lincoln Airport (LNK)
• Elton Hensley Mmorial Airport (FTT)
• Capital Region International Airport (LAN)
• DuPage Airport (DPA)
• Chicago Executive Airport (PWK)
• Tallahassee International Airport (TLH)
• The Eastern Iowa Airport (CID)
• Branson West Municipal - Emerson Field Airport (FWB)
• Gerald R Ford International (GRR)
• Elkhart Municipal Airport (EKM)
• South Bend International Airport (SBN)
• M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport (PLK)
By rapidly deploying these new technologies, the FAA is taking action to improve safety and eliminate serious close calls after the Safety Call to Action and the release of the Independent National Airspace System Safety Review Team report in 2023. Thus far, the FAA has increased ATC hiring, surpassing the goal of hiring 1,500 new controllers in 2023 and hiring 1,800 in 2024; improving the Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative to hire more candidates to begin facility training right after graduation; deploying upgraded tower simulator systems in 95 facilities across the country by the end of 2025; and investing millions of dollars for runway lighting and surface improvements at airports around the nation.