Many factors have an impact on flight operation safety and air transport participants life. This article presents one of them, which is maintenance of the airport infrastructure in a good condition, with proper infrastructure management, in particular of cash and human resources. At the beginning of the article, attention is paid to the aspect of safety and human life in air transport. Also, an overview of world experience in the field of assessment of the technical condition of airport pavements was presented, including the standard method of the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) estimation. Then, the authors propose an innovative method of assessing the condition of airport pavements based on the Airfield Pavement Condition Index (APCI), taking into account, apart from the extent of surface damage, such parameters as load capacity, evenness, roughness, and bond strength. This approach gives a broader picture of the actual condition of the airport pavement, which has a great importance on flight operation safety, including passengers and cruel life. Next the described research method is experimentally verified in real conditions at Polish airports. Finally, an example of using the APCI method in the assessment of selected airport pavements from Polish airports is presented. The results of tests performed on five functional elements of a military airfield are presented. A satisfactory result is obtained for three elements, an adequate-for two.
Keywords: aircraft operations; airfield pavements; deterioration; human life; safety; technical condition; transport.