Airnav's "operations per day"

[OU812]

Was curious to know how useful is Airnav's operations per day stat for determining how busy an airport is?
Also I have seen some uncontrolled fields with over 200/day and towered fields at around 60/day. How is the need for a tower determined?

 

[midwestpa24]

Towered airports will have pretty accurate counts. Non towered it is usually a guess of various accuracy. There is no good way to count short of paying someone to sit and watch airplanes.

 

[RyanB]

Yeah the statistics for non-towered fields are likely not very accurate. I’ve looked at the numbers for my home field and I know there’s no way that they’re accurate, unless they factor in each touch and go landing by the flight school.

 

[flyingron]

The FAA sends a form to the airport manager every year asking for all that information. I get the one for our airport. Airnav is just distributing what ends up on the FAA "airport master record" as a result.

 

[asicer]

Non towered it is usually a guess of various accuracy. There is no good way to count short of paying someone to sit and watch airplanes.

How do I get that job?

I suppose if the non-towered is under a mode C veil, one could put together a Raspberry Pi powered ADS-B receiver and count the number of targets that cross some transitional ground speed threshold. Outside of rule airspace, maybe a webcam and some image recognition software (bonus is that the webcam could be useful to pilots for checking the weather and/or fuel prices).

 

[N1120A]

Was curious to know how useful is Airnav's operations per day stat for determining how busy an airport is?
Also I have seen some uncontrolled fields with over 200/day and towered fields at around 60/day. How is the need for a tower determined?

Towers often are based on historic operations and/or commercial activity. There are a bunch of non-towered airports that are absolute zoos that should have towers. It is rare that a towered airport doesn't get busy at some points during every day.

Yeah the statistics for non-towered fields are likely not very accurate. I’ve looked at the numbers for my home field and I know there’s no way that they’re accurate, unless they factor in each touch and go landing by the flight school.

Touch and goes are counted as operations. So are practice approaches.

 

[midwestpa24]

unless they factor in each touch and go landing by the flight school.

Not only is a touch and go considered an operation, it is counted as two because it is a takeoff and a landing. If there is a flight school on the airport, there likely is a lot of operations. Busiest airport in Iowa by operations is DBQ because of the university flight school.

 

[RyanB]

Not only is a touch and go considered an operation, it is counted as two because it is a takeoff and a landing. If there is a flight school on the airport, there likely is a lot of operations. Busiest airport in Iowa by operations is DBQ because of the university flight school.

Interesting. Good to know!

 

[midwestpa24]

Towers often are based on historic operations and/or commercial activity. There are a bunch of non-towered airports that are absolute zoos that should have towers. It is rare that a towered airport doesn't get busy at some points during every day.

By that note, I know there are untowered airports that may be busier than other towered airports. Some towered airports are only still towered because they have been historically and they have successfully fought every mention of closure. Other towered airports I know of aren't towered because they are busy necessarily, but because they see large aircraft that don't mix well with untowered operations. I used to work at one like that. The AN-124 doesn't respond well to getting cut off on final by a Cessna 150 (true story).

 

[Captain Bubba]

By that note, I know there are untowered airports that may be busier than other towered airports. Some towered airports are only still towered because they have been historically and they have successfully fought every mention of closure. Other towered airports I know of aren't towered because they are busy necessarily, but because they see large aircraft that don't mix well with untowered operations. I used to work at one like that. The AN-124 doesn't respond well to getting cut off on final by a Cessna 150 (true story).

Some insurance companies have rules and/or discounts about operating commercial flights out of towered airports. All things being equal a towered field will attract more commercial operations.

 

[Brad Z]

By that note, I know there are untowered airports that may be busier than other towered airports. Some towered airports are only still towered because they have been historically and they have successfully fought every mention of closure. Other towered airports I know of aren't towered because they are busy necessarily, but because they see large aircraft that don't mix well with untowered operations. I used to work at one like that. The AN-124 doesn't respond well to getting cut off on final by a Cessna 150 (true story).

Yep, often local or state government will pick up the tab for operating the tower if they see a need for one at an airport that doesn't otherwise meet the traffic counts for an FAA funded tower. Like you said, it may be to accommodate the needs of an airport user who makes a significant financial impact to the area.

 

[Datadriver]

Towered airports will have pretty accurate counts. Non towered it is usually a guess of various accuracy. There is no good way to count short of paying someone to sit and watch airplanes.

Various automated means have been attempted for non-towered airports over the years:

1) microphone near the runway: can't determine single vs/twin vs jet
2) camera: not fully automated, wildlife walks in front of it
3) TCAS interrogator: not every plane has a transponder, same limitations as #1

 

[luvflyin]

Yep, often local or state government will pick up the tab for operating the tower if they see a need for one at an airport that doesn't otherwise meet the traffic counts for an FAA funded tower. Like you said, it may be to accommodate the needs of an airport user who makes a significant financial impact to the area.

Yeah. Some airlines won’t serve the City if there isn’t a Tower and the city/county will kick in to get one. They’ll even kick in to buy some Radar to reduce delays. Checkout Bozeman KBZN
https://bozemanairport.com/article-301