What’s a “National” General Aviation Airport?

An article about the FAA designating the Arlington Municipal Airport a “national” airport has been making the rounds, prompting folks to ask why “our” municipal airport isn’t so designated. I didn’t have the answer, so I started digging.

Per the FAA: “Facilities serving mostly general aviation operations were placed in categories based on current activity measures (e.g., number and type of based aircraft and volume and type of flights).” The five categories are National, Regional, Local, Basic, and Unclassified.

Here are the criteria for each category (for each, the airport must meet at least one of the criteria annually).

For a national airport:

• 5,000 or more instrument operations, 11 or more validated based jets and 20 or more international flights or 500 or more interstate departures; or
• 10,000 or more enplanements and at least 1 carrier enplanement by a large certificated air carrier; or
• 500 million pounds or more of landed cargo weight.

Regional:

• In a Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area, 10 or more domestic flights over 500 miles, 1,000 or more instrument operations, and 1 or more validated based jet or 100 or more validated based aircraft; or
• Nonprimary commercial service airport (requiring scheduled service) within a Metropolitan Statistical Area; or
• Currently designated by the FAA as a Reliever with 90 or more validated based aircraft.

Local:

• Public owned and 10 or more instrument operations and 15 or more validated based aircraft.
• Public owned and 2,500 or more annual enplanements.