By Ilona A. Munzer, CEO, Alder Airfield Services
High-risk. High-pressure. High-stakes. Airfield construction leaves no margin for error. Yet too often, safety on the Air Operations Area (AOA) is folded into general labor or reduced to a checklist. That’s the problem Alder Airfield Services was built to solve.
I came to aviation construction through an unconventional path: training in psychology and education, followed by hands-on airside work at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport during COVID. What I saw confirmed a simple truth: safety failures aren’t about effort; they’re about systems that don’t account for how people operate under pressure. Airfield safety can be done better. And it starts with treating safety logistics as infrastructure, not an afterthought.
Safety Is Not Just Compliance
On the AOA, incidents rarely stem from ignorance. More often, they come from fatigue, unclear roles, rushed decisions, and competing priorities. When safety logistics are treated as extra labor instead of specialized infrastructure, risk quietly accumulates. Third-party safety logistics changes that equation.
By separating safety-critical functions such as escorting, flagging, access coordination, and compliance support from general construction labor, projects gain clarity and consistency. Roles are clearly defined, accountability is maintained, and cognitive load is reduced. The result is not just fewer incidents but smoother execution.
What We’ve Learned at DFW
Alder has operated at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for several years with an unbeatable safety record. That result is the product of intentional design, not chance. We win work by reducing risk for prime contractors and airports. We specialize in airfield safety, logistics, and compliance, not general labor. We mobilize quickly, perform consistently, and stay audit-clean. Our SBE status may open doors, but performance earns repeat work. And we expand only where execution quality can be maintained.
For prime contractors, third-party safety logistics brings predictability. Escorts arrive trained and airfield-ready. Flagging is consistent. Access is controlled. Documentation holds up under scrutiny, allowing project teams to focus on building, not firefighting. For airports, it creates clearer lines of responsibility, stronger compliance outcomes, and fewer operational disruptions without overburdening staff. Most importantly, it reduces cognitive load across the AOA, helping people make better decisions when it matters most.
A New Approach
Safety cannot exist on the edges of a scope. It must be built in intentionally and independently, with systems designed for how people actually operate under pressure. Third-party safety logistics is not a trend; it is the next evolution of airfield construction. Safety is not just compliance; it is cognition, and it is time we start designing for it.
The time has come.