Can someone explain this? (facility levels)

[Dlab10]

I ran the report that shows number of operations for each FAA tower from 1/1/2010 through 4/2011

Im looking at the numbers, and this makes 0 sense (to me anyways)

Jacksonville, Fla Tower (JAX)
129,518 Airport Ops
133,078 Tower Ops
LEVEL 9


Allentown Tower (ABE)
121,546 Airport Ops
129,947 Tower Ops
LEVEL 8

Atlantic City ATCT
135,292 Airport Ops
136,846 Tower Ops
LEVEL 8

Reno Tower (RNO)
120,579 Airport Ops
136,910 Tower Ops
LEVEL 6

I know RNO was downgraded because it lost its TRACON, but wasnt tha before 1/1/2010?

How can RNO be a 6 when comparable towers (even less busy) can be 8s?

Isn't the level of facilities strictly determined by the number of operations?

 

[Rosstafari]

It also considers complexity, difficulty... a VFR tower handling a lot of training flights in challenging terrain with frequent poor weather may be more complex than a "busier" commercial facility with a single runway setup that handles TRACON-sequenced traffic.

 

[jcpilot]

The formula that determines facility levels is in the back of the red book. As Ross said, there are a number of other factors that determine facility level. Crossing runways, military traffic, amount of IFR traffic, and other factors that increase complexity are taken into consideration.

 

[Dlab10]

It also considers complexity, difficulty... a VFR tower handling a lot of training flights in challenging terrain with frequent poor weather may be more complex than a "busier" commercial facility with a single runway setup that handles TRACON-sequenced traffic.

got ya. Thanks for the information

 

[brownrebeccaa]

JAX TRACON is a 9 because it has the largest airspace in the country and has all kinds of crazy things that make it change (surrounding airspace ops, military ops, etc.) but the tower sees hardly any traffic compared to some other towers....

I did my internship there. It was pretty awesome.

 

[Roddy_Piper]

an IFR air carrier jet is worth much more than a VFR prop arrival. so it's more than just operation count.

 

[admin]

This was something I posted a few years ago that could shed some light on your question.

http://www.stuckmic.com/atc-information/457-terminal-traffic-analysis-program-ttap.html