Airports: Understanding The Different Categories And Their Functions

Airports are categorised by the type of activities they offer, including commercial service, primary, cargo service, reliever, and general aviation airports. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a system for categorising public-use airports, heliports and other aviation bases based on the level of commercial passenger traffic through each facility. This is used to determine whether an airport is eligible for funding through the federal government's Airport Improvement Program (AIP).

Primary airports

There are 5 categories of airports: commercial service, primary, cargo service, reliever, and general aviation airports.

The categories are:

• Nonhub primary – airports handling over 10,000 but less than 0.05% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Small hub primary – airports with 0.05–0.25% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Medium hub primary – airports handling 0.25–1% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Large hub primary – airports handling over 1% of the country's annual passenger boardings.

To put these numbers into context, there were 899,663,192 boardings at commercial airports in 2018, making the dividing lines 449,832, 2,249,158, and 8,996,632 boardings per year.

Commercial service airports

There are approximately 14,400 private-use airports and 5,000 public-use airports, heliports, and seaplane bases. Airports are categorised by the type of activities they offer, including commercial service, primary, cargo service, reliever, and general aviation airports.

• Nonhub primary – airports handling over 10,000 but less than 0.05% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Small hub primary – airports with 0.05–0.25% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Medium hub primary – airports handling 0.25–1% of the country's annual passenger boardings.
• Large hub primary – airports handling over 1% of the country's annual passenger boardings.

The hub categories for primary airports are defined as a percentage of total passenger boardings within the United States in the most current calendar year ending before the start of the current fiscal year. For example, calendar year 2014 data would be used for fiscal year 2016 since the fiscal year began 9 months after the end of that calendar year.

Cargo service airports

Airports are categorised by the type of activities they support, including commercial service, primary, cargo service, reliever, and general aviation airports.

LAX, for example, is a major cargo airport, serving Southern California and partnering with Asia-Pacific to deliver thousands of tonnes of cargo. Noida International Airport in India is another example of a cargo service airport, as it is expected to play a crucial role in enhancing air cargo and logistics infrastructure across northern India.

In addition to these dedicated cargo service airports, many primary airports also handle cargo in addition to their passenger services.

Reliever airports

Airports are categorised by the type of activities they host, including commercial service, primary, cargo service, reliever, and general aviation airports.

The MAC Reliever Airports Department manages the operation, maintenance and leasing of the MAC’s six general aviation airports: Airlake, Anoka County-Blaine, Crystal, Flying Cloud, Lake Elmo and St. Paul Downtown. These airports are designated as “reliever airports” because they reduce air traffic congestion at MSP while providing a vital outlet for flight training, military operations, and corporate and recreational flying.

General aviation airports

There are several categories of airport, including:

• Commercial service
• Primary
• Cargo service
• Reliever
• General aviation

In the US, general aviation airports are defined as those that handle fewer than 2,500 scheduled passengers each year. This is in contrast to primary airports, which handle over 10,000 passengers per year and are further subcategorised based on the number of passenger boardings as a fraction of the national total.

Frequently asked questions