Severe Runway Incursions Climb Forty-Four Percent in Twenty Twenty-Five While Total Incursions Fall

Total runway incursions in the United States declined slightly in 2025, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports that the most serious category - events where a collision was narrowly avoided - jumped 44%. In other words, the overall number improved while the dangerous near-misses moved the wrong way. For pilots, this makes surface awareness, hold-short readbacks, and disciplined taxi procedures more critical than ever.

What the 2025 Runway Incursion Data Actually Shows

The headline number looks like good news: overall runway incursions ticked down in 2025. That is the figure that lands in the press release.

Underneath it sits a harder truth. The FAA reports that the most severe incursions - the Category A and B events where a collision was barely avoided - rose 44% in a single year.

So the total pile of incursions got smaller, while the most dangerous slice of that pile got noticeably bigger. A 44% jump in the worst category in one year is not statistical noise. It is a signal.

What Is a Runway Incursion, and What Do the Categories Mean?

A runway incursion is any incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on the protected area of a runway. The FAA sorts them into four severity categories.

Category D is the mildest - little or no chance of a collision, but a mistake occurred. An example is an aircraft crossing a hold-short line onto a runway that was closed and empty. Technically an incursion, but no one was in danger.

Severity climbs from there through Category C and Category B up to Category A, the most serious. A Category A incursion is one where a collision was narrowly avoided - aircraft came close enough that someone had to take drastic action, got very lucky, or both.

When the FAA says severe incursions rose 44%, it is describing those top categories: the A’s and B’s, the genuine near-misses.

Why Are Severe Runway Incursions Increasing?

There is no single cause. Three factors are driving the trend.

Traffic volume. The system is busy again. Post-pandemic flying returned hard and fast - faster than the workforce recovered. More operations per hour on the same concrete means more chances for two paths to cross at the wrong moment. As exposure rises, rare events rise with it.

Human factors. Incursions are a shared problem across pilots, controllers, and ground vehicle drivers. FAA data over the years has consistently shown that a large share of incursions involve pilots, and a meaningful portion of those involve general aviation. That is not an insult - it is where the numbers point, and it means the person most able to prevent your next incursion is you.

Airport complexity. Hot spots are the intersections and taxiway layouts where the geometry itself invites mistakes: converging taxiways, a runway you must cross to get anywhere, and markings that are easy to misread when you are heads-down, tired, or unfamiliar with the field. The FAA publishes these hot spots directly on the airport diagram - telling you in advance exactly where people get confused.

Why Severe Incursions Are Rising While Total Incursions Fall

The divergence tells a specific story. Defenses against routine, everyday incursions are working better, while defenses against catastrophic ones are not keeping pace.

The minor stuff - harmless crossings and technical violations - is trending the right way. Better signage, better markings, and surface awareness campaigns are producing real progress, and it deserves credit.

But severe events happen when multiple things go wrong at once: a readback that was not truly understood, expectation bias (hearing what you expected instead of what was said), or a crossing clearance stepped on by another transmission. Those failures stack, and when they stack on a busy runway, the result is a Category A event.

How Can Pilots Prevent Runway Incursions?

Runway incursions are among the most preventable categories of risk in all of aviation. This is not uncontrollable weather or an unforeseen mechanical failure - it is procedure, communication, and attention, all inside the cockpit. Use these steps every flight.

1. Read back every hold-short instruction - in full. When you receive a hold-short instruction, read back the complete instruction: “Hold short of Runway 27.” Not “wilco,” not a mic click - the words. The FAA requires the runway hold-short readback, and this statistic is exactly why.

2. Know where you are before you move. Pull up the airport diagram and find the hot spots. At an unfamiliar field, especially at night or in low visibility, request progressive taxi instructions. There is no shame in it - controllers would rather talk you across the field than watch you end up somewhere you shouldn’t be.

3. Keep your eyes outside when crossing a runway. A runway crossing is not the moment to be heads-down setting flaps or programming a box. Lights on, eyes out, clear both directions even when you have been cleared. A clearance is permission - not a guarantee the other pilot heard the same thing you did.

4. If you are not certain, stop. Stopped on a taxiway is a minor inconvenience. Stopped on an active runway because you weren’t sure is the start of a very bad day. When in doubt, hold, then ask.

5. Run a sterile cockpit on the ground. We apply the sterile-cockpit discipline below 10,000 feet; the taxi phase deserves the same. The conversation can wait. The clearance cannot. Brief the taxi the way you brief the approach.

Why This Matters for Pilots Going Forward

The FAA is not just watching this happen. The agency has expanded the number of airports receiving surface surveillance technology, giving controllers a clearer picture of ground movement. It has held safety summits focused specifically on surface safety and leaned hard on the runway safety hot spot program and pilot education.

Some of that is why the overall number came down - the tools are helping. But technology at the tower does not help two airplanes at a field with no surface radar, and it does not fix a readback that never happened.

The practical takeaway: expect more attention on surface operations, not less. Expect it in your flight reviews, on checkrides, and in safety briefings. This statistic will drive policy, and that policy will land on the taxiway - which is to say, on you.

Key Takeaways

• Total US runway incursions fell slightly in 2025, but the most severe (Category A and B) events rose 44%, according to FAA runway safety data.
• Category A is the most serious classification - a collision narrowly avoided - while Category D is the mildest, often a technical violation with no real danger.
• The severe increase is driven by rising traffic volume, human factors, and complex airport geometry (hot spots).
• Severe incursions stem from stacked failures like poor readbacks, expectation bias, and stepped-on transmissions.
• Runway incursions are among the most preventable risks in aviation - read back every hold-short in full, brief the taxi, identify hot spots before moving, and keep eyes outside when crossing runways.