Airport Safeguarding

Physical Safeguarding is a process aiming at preventing collisions between aircraft and obstacles - such as new constructions or objects. It consists in controlling that obstacles do not infringe complex 3D-surfaces defined by international or national requirements around aerodromes (e.g. ICAO Annex 14 Obstacle Limitation Surfaces).

In many cases however, infringements cannot be avoided: it requires a detailed assessment, also called "aeronautical study", to assess if the proposed development has an impact on air operations and to develop mitigation measures to ensure that safety is not compromised.

The assessment of obstacles around airports and their impact on flight operational safety is a core competency of our team: we have conducted over 100 projects in this field since 1999, and are internationally one of the most renowned experts in this field.

CNS systems are very vulnerable to adverse effects caused by physical obstacles such as buildings, cranes, wind turbines as well as mobile objects (aircraft, construction equipment).

Therefore, to ensure safe air operations, national and international aviation regulations define protection surfaces and approval procedures for new developments and constructions (e.g. ICAO EUR DOC 015 – managing Building Restricted Areas - BRA, ICAO Annex 10, National Requirements, etc.).

The rules and associated concepts introduced by these regulations are complex and frequently misunderstood by the stakeholders. As protection surfaces are very restrictive, it often leads to conflicts between developers and airspace users – though, in many cases, technical solutions may be available to resolve or minimise adverse impacts.

Wind turbines represent a physical obstacle to air operations. To minimise the risk of collision or interferences with CNS systems, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and national authorities developed a set of regulations related to wind turbines in the vicinity of aerodromes. These requirements are nevertheless very complex, and represent a major restriction to new constructions of wind farms.

As demonstrated in numerous projects, airsight can assist project developers in defining and optimising the possible constructible area at an early project stage, as well as to evaluate and mitigate the impact of wind turbines on air operations - while taking into account diverging external stakeholders’ interests (aerodromes, aviation/military authorities, air navigation service providers).