Busiest Airspace in USA?

[flydog]

If you are talking GA it is definitely between Southern California and South Florida. Having flown extensively recently out of VNY and FXE I have to say FXE is hands down the busiest. On weekends there can be a dozen cessnas and pipers lined up for takeoff and the mix between jet traffic and GA is overwhelming. They usually change controllers out every 15 minutes at peak hours. FXE also seems to have more jet traffic than VNY.

I have waited 30 minutes in the practice area with students just to be able to get in a word edgewise to announce intentions to land and 8 mile downwind legs are common. I havent seen that type of GA traffic at VNY or any other California airport including SNA.

If you want to know busiest as far as non-GA my top 10 list would include DTW, SFO, SEA, and BOS not in any particular order. For some reason these places seem to be high workload even though their traffic count is not as high as LAX, ORD, and JFK, etc

 

[JBHewlett]

Well according to Airnav

According to Airnav I beleive that VNY is going to take the cake. However thats just from the statistics that I got off of airnav. I can tell you right now Airnavs operations data, needs to be taken with an entire shaker of salt because I know that at CEY there aren't 35 operations per day. VNY looks like its crazy though!!!!

I know that PRC has a bunch of operations per day. That is also one busy place.

J.

 

[501261]

You bring up an excellent point regarding traffic. It really depends on what time you hit it and what the weather is like.

I've never had a problem at VNY or SFO, but I don't go into VNY on weekends and I tell the boss if there's any weather (i.e. ground stops) at SFO we're going into OAK. If the airports require slots (JFK, ORD, Ski country during winter, etc.) it actually real easy to get into since the slots take care of most of the waiting.

Most of the headaches are caused when getting in line, not when you’re actually in line itself.

Some of the worst traffic scenarios that I have been part of are:

1. DCA 2000 inauguration. Primary cause- incompetence

2. A runway change at LAX, with weather. Primary cause- communication problems with the foreign carriers and having to repeat instructions (1 JAL got lost and caused a blockage on a taxiway).

3. NCAA Final 4 in SAT. Primary cause- T-storms.

4. NBAA conventions

5. Super bowl in MIA

6. SNA- just the other day. Took about 40 minutes to taxi out on a clear blue afternoon. Primary cause- lack of situational awareness from "pleasure" and students or instructors by wanting to shoot a couple of touch and go during such a busy push.

Sorry I have to vent a little here! But hey, when there are 20 people in line to take off and you don't HAVE to be flying, go get a cup of coffee and come back in an hour, the airport will still be there! On that same note, when there are more than 5 people in the pattern at airport A, do something a little crazy and shoot touch and goes at Airport B!

Sorry to Flame anyone, but I was pissed.

 

[Delta3]

I can't believe some of those airports in SoCal. Almost all of those Class D (VNY right?) have almost twice the amount of traffic than Cleveland International (Class B).

I took a delta MD-88 to DCA on that Innauguration Day. Popping out of the clouds right above the Potomac and seeing Capitol was quite a sight.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Cleveland Int'l? Oh, please, I've never had a problem going in there (IFR, airline service of course).

I say again, weekend traffic in northeast airports on a nice day will equal any worst-case scenario in SoCal or Florida. 8-mile downwinds? Try 12! Far, far outside of the airspace "controlled" by the tower in a Class D field... Take a look at Republic some time and look at what "downwind over water" REALLY means. Some of the days I suffered through on Long Island were simply the worst I have ever seen, worse than any airport east of the Mississippi that I have had to deal with (and as an ERAU grad, that includes the exaggerated case of DAB, which isn't even in my personal top-five as heavy traffic goes).

 

[A Squared]

Busiest Seaplane base:

Lake Hood, Anchorage, Alaska (LHD)

Being # 5 for departure doesn't sound bad....until you remember that seaplanes don't have brakes.

 

[avbug]

Obviously nobody here has worked out of Tuweep, AZ. Talk about busy. Once I saw two airplanes land there within a one month period. Soon there was talk about putting in a tower. Then about paving the runway. Even about cutting down the weeds so we could find the runway. After the second airplane landed you could hear everyone thinking, "well, there goes the neighborhood." Next thing you know, the federal government steps in and puts a boatload of restricted airspace about the place. I have no idea what would happen if they got a third airplane in, but you can bet it would involve the invocation of a clearance delivery and possibly even a fuel truck...

GCN is a really busy place. With four to five patterns going for the same airport and frequently three or four stacks of aircraft holding just outside the airport, it's almost always strictly VFR. I've seen dual right and left inner and outer patterns going simultaneously to one runway, with the addition of several helicopter patterns and overhead patterns...all full. That's an inner and outer left down wind, and right downwind, and overheads to both, plus the helicopter ops.

The busiest airspace, without question, is between my soon-to-be-ex-mother-in-law's ears. You can actually look in through one ear, or a cavernous nostril, and see little balls of light and thousands of demonic fairies flying around in there. It's not a pretty sight.

 

[Ravengirl]

Avbug- I want to see that! Can you try to put a TFR on it? Or make it a prohibited area?

SNA can be awful at times...yet somehow I still manage to love the place. The thing is, you can realize it's busy and taxi back to the FBO, but half the time it takes just as long to taxi back...so in the end it's better to just stick it out and wait your turn. What I do is time it so I am ready to go and calling clearance either right on the hour or the half hour. These are times that many students and CFI's are getting ready to go to the airplane, so you can escape a little bit of the crush...

Patience is a virtue and you learn it well at SNA.

Stephanie

 

[AAflyer]

Ravengirl,

I like the 7:00am push (SNA). We get our checklist ready spool up and wait for the horn. Only place you can play with jet on take-off. Max power, realease the breaks and put the nose into the sky.YAAAAAA BAAAABBYY!!

AAflyer

 

[acacrjfo]

For those of us a little further up the East Coast, how about BED, ASH, or any of the Cape Cod/Islands Class D's on a midsummer weekend?