FAA monitors system safety via 30 airports

FAA has compiled a list of 30 airports that it will use to monitor the progress of its plan to increase aviation system safety and efficiency.

This is a follow-on step after the agency’s Operational Evolution Plan (OEP), a 10-year initiative (2000-2010) that increased capacity. “With the OEP process we were able to complete 22 airfield projects at 19 airports. Those improvements enabled airports to accommodate two million more additional operations,” an FAA spokesperson told.

The list, known as Core 30, will be updated periodically and was described by FAA as “a living document.” It includes 30 airports, “but that number can fluctuate … as the FAA assesses the airports,” the spokesperson said. “As it stands now, the airports that are on the list represent the airports that have an overall significance to the national air transportation system based on air traffic operations and passenger boardings.”

The list allows FAA to assess the safety and efficiency of the overall system, through monitoring the performance of the 30 “daily, weekly, monthly,” although FAA deputy director, office of airport planning and programming Elliot Black said at FAA’s Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington in March, “there’s no value judgment to being on that list or not being on that list.”

In mid-March, the airports on the list were: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago Midway, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis International, Miami, Minneapolis, New York JFK, New York La Guardia, Newark, Orlando International, Philadelphia, Phoenix,  Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Washington Dulles and Washington Reagan.

“These are some of the busiest airports,” the FAA spokesperson told “We want to make sure things are running safely and efficiently. That’s what we will be monitoring.”

Article Source : ATW Daily News