Innovation and Collaboration Will Shape the Future of Aviation Safety

A record 17.8 million passengers traveled by air during Thanksgiving week 2025, including 3.13 million on Sunday – the busiest day ever recorded by the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration and America’s airlines. 

Full airplanes, crowded terminals and long check-in lines were evidence of the public’s almost insatiable appetite for flying. The FAA projects a 30% increase in U.S. passenger boardings over the next decade and Airbus expects revenue passenger kilometers to grow 40% worldwide during the same period. 

Feeling The Stress: The Impact of Traffic Growth on Safety

“Commercial aviation is the safest mode of transportation,” noted Sapan Shah, Senior Director of Product Management for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Autonomy at Honeywell Aerospace. "But we are starting to see cracks and stress in the system due to rapid traffic growth and an aging infrastructure. The biggest challenge we face is upgrading the infrastructure so commercial aviation can continue to grow rapidly to meet the demands of the flying public.”

The mid-2020s find the aviation community at an inflection point. The task at hand is to expand airspace capacity to safely accommodate this extraordinary rate of air traffic growth. At the same time, we are preparing to integrate next-generation AAM aircraft into the skies we share. And we need to modernize an obsolete air traffic control system without compromising the foundation of safety that has defined aviation for many decades.

Commercial aviation is safer now than ever, with the global fatal accident rate dropping to an all-time low in 2024 despite record-high traffic volumes, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Advances in technology, rigorous certification standards, extensive training, data-driven safety programs and strong global collaboration have all contributed to aviation’s unshakeable commitment to safety.

Catching Up with Demand: The Power of Innovation

“Modernizing the air traffic control system is an urgent priority because traffic volumes are growing beyond the capacity of current systems," said Dave Marinick, President of Engines and Power Systems at Honeywell Aerospace. "Controllers are still using antiquated legacy systems to handle air traffic management, even though there is new technology to address today’s more complex ATC requirements. 

“Honeywell applauds the Trump Administration for meeting these challenges head-on by upgrading hardware and software, adding automation tools and tackling the ongoing shortage of qualified air traffic controllers to ensure the system remains safe, efficient and resilient for decades to come,” Marinick added. 

 ATC modernization complements flight deck innovations that reduce human error, enhance situational awareness, automate routine tasks and provide pilots with intelligent decision support during critical phases of flight, said Bob Buddecke, President of Electronic Solutions at Honeywell Aerospace.

“Technology advancements on the aircraft side fit symbiotically with ATC modernization to advance safety across the entire ecosystem,” Buddecke said. “For example, Runway Situational Awareness Alerting System (RSAAS) and Surface Alerts (SURF-A) technologies significantly improve runway safety by alerting flight crews of wrong-runway risks, runway incursions and other surface conflicts before they become hazardous.”

Other technologies address safety concerns such as GPS interference, cybersecurity and the growing vulnerability of digital flight systems. As aircraft become more connected and more dependent on satellite-based navigation, the risks of jamming, spoofing and cyber intrusion have become operational realities. 

To counter these threats, aviation is adopting resilient navigation solutions, hardened data networks and cybersecurity protections that treat digital integrity as a core safety requirement rather than an IT issue. 

Shaping The Future: A Legacy of Flight Safety

Honeywell pioneered many of the innovations that define modern aviation safety, Buddecke continued. “They include Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems (EGPWS), Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) and IntuVue 3D Weather Radar. Our advanced cockpits, like Primus Epic and Honeywell Anthem, set new standards for situational awareness with advanced safety features like airport moving maps and synthetic vision.”

Modern aircraft are more autonomous than ever. Automated cockpit, safety and navigation systems oversee many routine tasks so pilots can focus on flight safety, contingency management and other higher priorities. Honeywell is a leading innovator in aviation autonomy and advanced systems that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and sensor fusion to make flight safer, smarter and more efficient. 

Honeywell brings its legacy of safety and certification expertise to the new world of AAM. “We have developed safety systems for aircraft for close to 100 years,” said Dave Shilliday, Honeywell Aerospace’s Vice President and General Manager of AAM. “Now we’re applying that same rigor and innovative power to the specific needs of this exciting new industry and to aircraft that must perform at the highest level and operate in more crowded airspace. There is no daylight between what we do every day and what the AAM industry needs to be successful."

AAM will advance concepts such as autonomy and electrification that may have broader implications across the aerospace industry. “Aerospace can really be a great sandbox for trying new technology, but rolling it out into the public and putting it on certified aircraft needs to go through a well-established certification process,” said Taylor Alberstadt, Senior Director of Global Sales and Account Management on the AAM team. “We live by the rule that we will never push adoption of new technology until it is as safe or safer than what exists today.

“The public airspace is already overtaxed, and we want to bring more and more aircraft into that already crowded airspace,” he continued. “We need to maintain the same safety level when we add additional vehicles, which means allowing the machine and the human to do the work for which they’re best suited.” 

Aviation Safety: The Power of Collaboration

At the Honeywell-hosted American Aviation Leadership Summit in November, National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen warned of the dangers of complacency when it comes to safety. 

“Air transportation didn’t just ‘become safe,’” Bolen said. “We don’t stay safe by taking safety for granted. Safety is part of aviation's DNA, and today we’re seeing passion across the board – from industry, from Congress and from the administration – to create the largest, safest, most accessible air transportation system in the world. We are going to get this done.” 

Rich DeGraff, President of Control Systems at Honeywell, stressed the importance of industry-wide collaboration when it comes to safety. “No single entity can carry aviation forward safely as demand rises; the skies become more crowded as new AAM aircraft enter the system,” he said. “Close collaboration between government agencies, private industry, aircraft manufacturers, technology suppliers and airlines, all working toward the single goal of improving safety, is vital.”