A major airfield upgrade at Ronaldsway Airport means that the Isle of Man gateway is now equipped to handle aircraft up to the size of A320 and B737 with full payloads.

The end of the airport’s runway has been extended 250 metres into the Irish Sea to improve safety levels to enhance safety levels at the UK gateway.

In addition to extending the existing Runway End Safety Area (RESA) into the sea – which involved a ground-breaking civil engineering project designed by TPS, the main part of the runway and parallel taxiway have also been lengthened.

TPS’s RESA solution was to design an extension out to sea by creating a gravity rock armour structure, approximately 250 metres in length and 150 metres wide.

John Veale, concept structural designer, explains: “The structure, which stands at a height of 12 metres, is effectively a land reclamation gained by taking sand from deep in the Irish Sea to create a sand in-filled gravity structure.

“The gravity rock armour protecting the RESA gravity structure from sea erosion and wave damage actually uses the largest rock on a project undertaken in the British Isles.”



The RESAs at each end of the 08-26 Runway now meet the full recommendations of CAP 168 Chapter 3 paragraph 5, which sets down the recommended dimensions to be at least 240m long by 150m wide.

In addition to increasing safety of the existing main runway, TPS’s design team, headed by Nick Pell, extended its usable length by designing and installing ‘starter strips’, which enable the use of the runway by the smaller commercial passenger jet aircraft such as those used by Easyjet.

It also completed an extension of the existing main runway’s parallel taxiway as well as strengthening the runway to handle these larger commercial aircraft.