Investigations are underway following a spate of runway conflicts at Sydney Airport. (Supplied)
An aviation researcher has identified a broader pattern of safety incidents increasing across Australian airports.
The new research analysed Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) data over 22 years for Australian commercial air transport.
An ATSB spokesperson says investigations are continuing into the spate of recent runway conflicts at Sydney Airport.
With air safety under the microscope after a spate of runway conflicts in Sydney, new research says incidents have significantly risen at Australian airports in the last 22 years.
Since late July, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has opened six investigations into runway incursions and taxiing occurrences at Sydney Airport, with the two most recent cases announced on Wednesday.
The ATSB said on August 16, air traffic control told a Virgin 737 to give way to a Qantas 737 leaving the runway but the instruction was not relayed correctly and the mistake went unnoticed by air control.
On August 25, incomplete traffic information was passed to a Jetstar Airbus A320, which resulted in a Bombardier Dash 8 taxiing behind the aircraft.
On August 25, incomplete traffic information was passed to a Jetstar Airbus A320. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)
The ATSB said only one incident, in which a Jetstar crew member was injured on August 9, had been categorised as a "near collision".
It said a second incident has been classed as a "serious incident", while the remaining four had only met the threshold for "incidents".
The incidents piqued the interest of Graham Wild, an aviation discipline coordinator at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), who identified a broader pattern of incidents increasing across Australian airports.
With a specific focus on runway incursions and taxiing collisions or near collisions, Dr Wild analysed data from the ATSB from 2003 to 2025.
In his analysis, Dr Wild measured the count and rate of occurrences per million flight hours, to assess whether runway incursions and taxiing incidents were rising faster than the amount of flying.
He found for domestic aviation, taxiing collisions or near-collision occurrences increased on average by about one additional occurrence every three years.
