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. Nashville 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 |
31 | AUS | Austin Tower | 290,614 | 303,650 | +13,036 |
32 | M03 | Memphis | 285,437 | 301,930 | +16,493 |
33 | PBI | Palm Beach Tower | 280,591 | 282,212 | +1,621 |
34 | A11 | Anchorage | 276,715 | 270,295 | -6,420 |
35 | BNA | Nashville Tower | 247,811 | 264,992 | +17,181 |
36 | PIT | Pittsburgh Tower | 255,510 | 260,171 | +4,661 |
37 | CRP | Corpus Christi Tower | 237,223 | 255,062 | +17,839 |
38 | IND | Indianapolis Tower | 240,459 | 252,756 | +12,297 |
39 | E10 | High Desert | 249,652 | 248,575 | -1,077 |
40 | MSY | New Orleans Tower | 249,652 | 248,248 | -1,404 |
Pittsburgh is another one of the “This place used to be busy” spots. I guess that was way back in the mid 80’s though. Ever since airlines opted to put hubs elsewhere, Pittsburgh has had a steadily declining ops count. Much of Memphis’ traffic happens on the Mid (Late night shift, for those of you that don’t habla F Hey Hey speak). I have no clue where High Desert Tracon is, and I don’t really care. Crack the top 25 and then I’ll learn your name. I’m surprised to see New Orleans in the number 40 position; I thought that they were busier. Click Here for numbers 41-50 on the list.

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