AIRPORT ROLES
Airport roles are defined differently from a national, state, and local perspective. Prior to determining current roles for the Massachusetts Statewide Airport System Plan (MSASP) or analyzing the future system’s needs, it is essential to review the historic role classifications.
Massachusetts has historically utilized the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) airport role classification system, having never established a system dedicated to the Commonwealth. As part of the MSASP, an examination of the FAA roles classifications, as well as other states’
classification systems was conducted to provide input in designing a Massachusetts-specific approach to airport roles.
FAA’s National Airport Classifications & Previous State Airport Classification
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is essentially a nationwide airport system plan used by the FAA to identify aviation facilities of significance to the national air
2010 MASSACHUSETTS STATEWIDE AIRPORT SYSTEM PLAN
transportation network. It is maintained on a continuing basis, and every two years an update is reported to Congress. The NPIAS includes a plan for the type and cost of eligible airport development that the Secretary of Transportation, “…considers necessary to provide a safe, efficient, and integrated system of public use airports adequate to anticipate and meet the needs of civil aeronautics, to meet the national defense requirements of the Secretary of Defense, and to meet identified needs of United States Postal Service.” Therefore, for airports to receive federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding, they must be included in the NPIAS. AIP funding is derived from the Aviation Trust Fund; the source for this trust fund is a dedicated stream that is derived from taxes on the aviation fuel and commercial airline tickets.
While there are a variety of criteria that are considered for an airport to be included in the NPIAS, generally speaking, to be in the NPIAS, an airport must:
• Be more than 30 miles from the closest NPIAS airport
• Have at least 10 based aircraft
• Have a willing public sponsor
Recommendations from this MSASP will be coordinated with both the NPIAS as well as individual airport master plans.
The NPIAS defines an airport's role by its “service level,” which reflects the type of service that a given airport provides to the nation, state, and local community. It is important to note that service levels also reflect the funding categories established by Congress to assist in airport development through the Airport Improvement Program (AIP).
Specifically, the service levels used by the NPIAS include the following:
• Primary Service (PR) - Primary Service airports are public use airports receiving scheduled airline passenger service, enplaning 10,000 or more passengers per year.
• Commercial Service (CM) - Commercial Service airports are public use airports which receive scheduled airline passenger service and which enplane 2,500 or more passengers annually.
• Reliever (RL) - Reliever airports are general aviation or commercial service airports which serve to relieve congestion for a Primary Service airport by providing
general aviation and non-airline commercial operators with alternative access to the community.
• General Aviation (GA) - General Aviation airports are either publicly or privately owned public use airports that primarily serve general aviation users.
The 2009-2013 NPIAS listing for Massachusetts includes 26 of the 37 airports in the MSASP.
The service level classification of these 26 airports includes six Primary Service, three Reliever, and 17 General Aviation airports. Figure 3-1 presents the service level for those airports identified within the NPIAS, as well as the non-NPIAS airports included in the MSASP. It is important to note that while shown in Figure 3-1 and included in the NPIAS, Logan International Airport (Boston) and Laurence G. Hanscom Field (Bedford) are not included in this update to the MSASP. It should also be noted that of the 27 Massachusetts airports listed in the NPIAS, three airports (Great Barrington/Walter J. Koladza Airport, Northampton Airport, and Stow/Minute Man Air Field) are actually privately-owned. This is a very important
2010 MASSACHUSETTS STATEWIDE AIRPORT SYSTEM PLAN distinction in that while inclusion in the NPIAS typically enables airport to receive federal AIP funding, the fact that these three airports are privately-owned makes them ineligible for such federal funding. This important distinction will be considered throughout the MSASP.
Figure 3-1: FAA NPIAS Role
Note that while these service levels are useful to the FAA in making funding decisions, they do not adequately describe the function or role of the airports within the Massachusetts airport system; this is particularly true with respect to the General Aviation category. Stated simply, the
Airport ID Associated City Airport Name FAA Role
8B5 Barre/Barre Plains Tanner-Hiller Airport1 ----
BED Bedford Laurence G. Hanscom Field2 Primary Service
1M8 Berkley Myricks Airport1 ----
BVY Beverly Beverly Municipal Airport Reliever
BOS Boston Logan International Airport2 Primary Service CQX Chatham Chatham Municipal Airport General Aviation
1B2 Edgartown Katama Airpark ----
5B6 Falmouth Airpark Falmouth Airpark1 ----
FIT Fitchburg Fitchburg Municipal Airport General Aviation GDM Gardner Gardner Municipal Airport General Aviation
GBR Great Barrington Walter J. Koladza Airport1 General Aviation3
28M Hanson Cranland Airport1 ----
1B6 Hopedale Hopedale Industrial Park Airport1 ---- HYA Hyannis Barnstable Municipal Airport-Boardman/Polando Field Primary Service
LWM Lawrence Lawrence Municipal Airport Reliever
1B9 Mansfield Mansfield Municipal Airport General Aviation
9B1 Marlborough Marlboro Airport1 ----
GHG Marshfield Marshfield Municipal Airport - George Harlow Field General Aviation 2B1 Marstons Mills Cape Cod Airport ----
0B5 Montague Turners Falls Airport General Aviation ACK Nantucket Nantucket Memorial Airport Primary Service EWB New Bedford New Bedford Regional Airport Primary Service 2B2 Newburyport Plum Island Airport1 ----
AQW North Adams Harriman-and-West Airport General Aviation 7B2 Northampton Northampton Airport1 General Aviation3 OWD Norwood Norwood Memorial Airport Reliever
ORE Orange Orange Municipal Airport General Aviation PSF Pittsfield Pittsfield Municipal Airport General Aviation PYM Plymouth Plymouth Municipal Airport General Aviation PVC Provincetown Provincetown Municipal Airport Primary Service 3B0 Southbridge Southbridge Municipal Airport General Aviation
60M Spencer Spencer Airport1 ----
3B3 Sterling Sterling Airport1 ----
6B6 Stow Minute Man Air Field1 General Aviation3 TAN Taunton Taunton Municipal Airport - King Field General Aviation MVY Vineyard Haven Martha's Vineyard Airport Primary Service BAF Westfield/Springfield Barnes Municipal Airport General Aviation CEF Chicopee/Springfield Westover Air Reserve Base/Metropolitan Airport Primary Service ORH Worcester Worcester Regional Airport Primary Service Note: ---- Indicates that the general aviation airport is not included in the NPIAS.
1Privately-owned, public-use airport
2Airports not included in the 2010 Massachusetts Statewide Airport System Plan.
3 Included in the NPIAS, but are ineligible for federal AIP funding due to private ownership.
Source: FAA Prepared: March 2010
2010 MASSACHUSETTS STATEWIDE AIRPORT SYSTEM PLAN
17 Massachusetts airports within the NPIAS General Aviation category do not serve the same function or role within the state system, nor should they be designed to do so. Unfortunately, the NPIAS service level for General Aviation airports does not provide any ability to further define an airport or discriminate as to its function within a system. Additionally, this category does not and cannot account for the 11 non-NPIAS general aviation airports included in the MSASP that also require analysis as to their function or role in the Commonwealth’s system.
As reflected within the Massachusetts aviation system, general aviation airports typically have varying levels of activities, facilities, and services in order to meet a highly diverse set of needs.
For example, some general aviation airports are used extensively by large business-class aircraft, while others are used primarily by small aircraft for recreational purposes, while still others are used for emergency medical air transport. However, the FAA’s NPIAS service levels do not relate to the manner in which general aviation airports function within a state system.
The NPIAS service level classification provides little guidance on the types of facilities that should be developed and/or maintained to meet other functions. Both federal and state funding for airport improvements is extremely limited; therefore, it is essential that airports in Massachusetts be developed to the extent necessary to perform their identified roles, and that state funding is applied to help support these roles.