The Top 50 U.S. Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities
Here’s some things to note when reading this chart:
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The numbers are total operations for the year (divide by 365 if you really need to estimate the daily ops count). “Operations” are arrivals, departures, overflights, VFR aircraft screwing around, etc.
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Some facilities will have “Tower” in their name. Tampa tower is an “Up/Down” facility. The data in this table is just for the operations that the TRACON portion of the facility worked.
| RANK | ID | NAME | FY15 | FY16 | CHANGE |
| 21 | TPA | Tampa Tower | 449,312 | 456,195 | +6,883 |
| 22 | S56 | Salt Lake City | 404,545 | 408,675 | +4,130 |
| 23 | JAX | Jacksonville | 343,878 | 361,549 | +17,671 |
| 24 | CMH | Columbus Tower | 314,573 | 325,673 | +11,100 |
| 25 | ZSU | San Juan CERAP | 313,713 | 324,336 | +10,623 |
| 26 | SAT | San Antonio | 328,008 | 318,245 | -9,763 |
| 27 | DAB | Daytona Beach Tower | 324,924 | 317,406 | -7,518 |
| 28 | T75 | St. Louis | 301,881 | 313,275 | +11,394 |
| 29 | P80 | Portland | 302,142 | 312,801 | +10,659 |
| 30 | P31 | Pensacola | 302,852 | 292,432 | -10,420 |
Some of the facilities are neck and neck. San Antonio has fallen a great deal in recent years. It looks like it can no longer claim it’s title of “The World’s Busiest Level 9”. Daytona Beach Tower also had a drop off in ops count…maybe Embry Riddle reduced their flights. It’s sad to see St. Louis’ fall from grace. Back in the day, it used to be a hopping place. Things change I guess. Click for numbers 31-40 on the list
