Airbus is aiming to extend runway overrun protection to the A220 next year, as it works to certify a safety system for the twinjet.
The airframer has already developed such equipment – which it designates ROPS – for other aircraft in its range.
ROPS features overrun warning, prior to touchdown, and overrun protection afterwards. These support crew decisions to execute a go-around or, upon landing, activate maximum deceleration.
Airbus states, in its internal publication Safety First, that line-fit of a similar system on the A220 is expected in 2027.
New-build aircraft, under European Union Aviation Safety Agency regulations, are supposed to be fitted with runway overrun awareness and alerting systems from 1 July this year.
This amounts to an 18-month deferral from the original European deadline of 1 January 2025.
EASA shifted the mandate after acknowledging that several manufacturers – including Airbus’s Canadian division, which produces the A220 – were encountering supply-chain and certification challenges.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority had been maintaining a 1 January 2026 deadline but stated in December that, owing to “industrial difficulties”, it was granting a six-month grace period.
Airbus says that it expects to secure a further exemption period from the mandate, “pending the availability of the function” on the A220.
It says the A220 system is in the final stages of certification, adding that it “slightly differs” from the system fitted to other Airbus jets.
“But the same principle applies,” it says. Crews will be able to select the runway condition – dry, wet, and wet grooved, with others available after further certification. As with ROPS, the A220 system will provide ‘air phase’ and a ‘ground phase’ warnings, divided by an altitude threshold.
