Geneva International Airport operates two closely spaced parallel runways: one long, concrete, runway and a shorter grass strip. The concrete runway is used predominantly by heavy aircraft flying under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), and the grass strip is restricted to small single-engine aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). In recent years the traffic volume on both runways has significantly increased. This has led to questions from both the management of the airport and the residents around the airport, whether the simultaneous operations of VFR traffic on the grass runway and IFR traffic on the concrete runway can still be considered compatible and sufficiently safe, and how this would develop in the near future in case further growth would have to be accommodated. For this reason the management of the airport decided to launch a study to assess the safety aspects of the traffic mix and the specific runway layout at Geneva Airport. The safety institute has been contracted to conduct this study, which comprised the following activities:
- Analysis of compliance with applicable rules and regulations;
- Evaluation of the safety management practices at Geneva airport and air traffic management;
- Hazard assessment of the particular flight operations at Geneva airport; and
- Projection of safety impact of future traffic growth and potential technical developments.

The study concluded in an extensive report that the current mixed operations at Geneva can not be qualified as unsafe. Nevertheless some incompatibilities with standard practices have been uncovered, and in addition a substantial number of potential hazards were identified that need closer scrutiny in order to ensure continued safety in the future.