Estimating Airport Operations at General Aviation Airports Using the FAA NPIAS Airport Categories

<p>The number of annual aircraft operations (take-offs and landings) is a significant concern to both airport owners and operators and to governmental agencies because operations data are one of the most important criteria used for determining future investments in airports. However, estimating the number of aircraft operations at non-towered general aviation airports is challenging work due to the lack of counts from air traffic control towers or useful estimates developed using models. Previous work in estimating annual aircraft operations has resulted in models and sampling methods that are imprecise or difficult to use. In 2014, new classification categories of 2,939 public-use general aviation airports in the United States were published in the <em>National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) 2015-2019 Report</em>. The goal of this research is to determine if the new airport classification categories provide an opportunity to improve models for estimating aircraft operations at GA airports. This research used the FAA Form 5010 data reported by airport managers. Another potential source for operations is the TAF (Terminal Area Forecast). Both Form 5010 and TAF have inaccuracies for non-towered airports. The Form 5010 was selected because it is one of the sources for the TAF. Based on this study, the NPIAS categories were found to be significant in the regression model developed. Future research will investigate using TAF data.</p>