FAA ISSUES AMENDED RULEMAKING ON AIRPORT SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The FAA recently issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) for safety management systems (SMS) for airports. SMS is a formal approach to managing safety through four key components – safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion. The FAA proposes to integrate proactive hazard identification and risk management based principles into the day-to-day operations at airports.
Notably, the rulemaking narrows the number of airports that will be required to implement SMS from 500 down to approximately 260. SMS will be required at Part 39 certificated airports that are:
- Classified as a small, medium, or large hub airport in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems; AND
- Identified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as a port of entry, designated international airport, landing rights airport, or user fee airport; OR
- Identified as having more than 100,000 total annual operations which includes takeoffs and landings.
The implementation period has been extended from 12 to 18 months, and airports will have 12 months to submit an implementation plan. The FAA is requesting and accepting comments until September 12, 2016.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact Shelley Ewalt or Lisa Harig.