The Airport System, Charted
The current FAA cycle: 13,000 landing facilities, 16,000 runways, 11,800 instrument approaches.
The country, drawn by its airports
The coast is a faint outline; the shape you actually see is made of airports, colored by field elevation. Tap a dot to name it.
Loading the cycle…
Runway length
Landing facilities only — helipads and seaplane lanes are not runways, and counting them buries the real shape. The airline picture is the thin tail on the right.
Surface
Grass outnumbers asphalt.
Approaches by family
RNAV (GPS) now outnumbers ILS, localizer, VOR and NDB put together.
Field elevation
The thin tail past 8,000 ft is where density altitude starts deciding things.
Busiest fields
Most instrument approaches
Most runways
Sources
NASR and CIFP, reloaded every 28 days. United States only — unlike the weather rankings, which span 200+ countries.
For interest, not for flight planning. Use current official charts.