The high safety requirements of the air transport industry place great demands on men, materials and technology. The heavy loads on airport runways, take-off and landing strips require safe and reliable technical solutions. Geosynthetics contribute in many different ways to the safety of air travel.

High-strength wovens and geogrids stabilise and reinforce the structural layers of airport runways, take-off and landing strips and thus increase their load-carrying capacity.

Asphalt reinforcement grids reinforce the asphalt layers and prevent or delay the onset of reflective cracking in the runway surface caused by temperature variations and load-induced fatigue. Areas typically prone to this type of cracking include asphalt surfacing over old concrete runway slabs (expansion joints) and distressed blacktop runway construction.

Nonwoven fabric is used to drain the sub-surface construction layers. It is used as a filter and drainage medium or to separate the structural layers and the formation or runway foundation. The materials forming the foundation and the surfacing can be protected from groundwater by the use of geosynthetic clay liners.