ACI Guidance on Reducing Runway Overrun Consequences: RESA and EMAS

Airports Council International (ACI) World published guidance on reducing the consequences of runway overruns, noting that while overruns are infrequent their consequences can be severe and that runway excursions remain one of ICAO's global high-risk occurrence categories. It says airport leadership must ensure every runway end has appropriate protection, that residual risk is understood, and that improvement decisions are funded. Protection options include runway end safety areas (RESA), which provide additional space beyond the runway strip with dimensions set by ICAO Annex 14, and engineered materials arresting systems (EMAS), which passively absorb energy to decelerate an overrunning ai…