Busiest Airports

Has anyone seen a recent list of the 5-10 busiest airports in the U.S. I heard McCarren was third busiest. That suprised me a little. Thought DFW and LAX would be up there.

See this thread: discussions.flightaware.com/view … ht=busiest

(Second time today, hint - try the search function at the top of the page)

Thanks, I am a new member still learning my way around the site.

No problem, welcome aboard!

ATL: 976,307 flights in 2006
ORD: 958,643 flights in 2006
DFW: 702,713 flights in 2006

KCDW 109,611 flights in 2006 :laughing:

Are these total revenue movements? I had wondered the last couple years if ATL has been beating KORD since KORD has no GA traffic. :question:

Neil :slight_smile:

most likely thats total aircraft movements. that includes landings, takeoffs, and airplanes/helos that cross into the airports airspace. thats how airport data is normaly taken

ORD does have GA, its just pretty expensive to fly there. there is a Signature base that is open to all GA activity, but it is not very busy unlike the airport itself.

Vollbrecht is right (welcome to the forums vollbrecht). Did you mean KORD doesn’t have a lot of GA? I’ve been there on a few occasions, they’re not as busy as some Signatures but they’re still there. Check out flightaware.com/live/airport/KORD/arrivals/ga for KORD GA arrivals. (some of those aren’t GA but most of them are)

“Some of them aren’t GA” Yes, that’s very interesting.

For instance, BMA705 is a daily arrival at KORD from Manchester, UK. British Midland Airlines. How can BMA be classified as GA?? :question:

Other GA oddities are China Cargo Airlines, Pace Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Tradewinds International Airlines.

You left out a salient part of the quote Toby, “but most of them are”.

Or is it obtuse Saturday?

The FAA has rules that tell controllers how to count traffic.

faa.gov/Atpubs/FAC/Ch12/s1202.html

That section of the Facility Management Manual concerns Tower traffic count rules.

Some of the “GA” you guys are discussing might be counted as Air Taxis in the tower traffic count. (The ones with the three letter company ID’s, for example)

Of course most of them are, James. In theory, ALL of them are.

But finding the exceptions to the rule is the fun part.

For pthomas745: I agree that some (or many) of the three-letter IDs are air taxis or chartered aircraft. Also, some GA air taxis use the prefix “TN”. But most of what I cited are foreign carriers using big jets. I can’t consider them GA.

Again, I was pointing out exceptions to the rule.