The Airport System, Charted

The current FAA cycle: 13,000 landing facilities, 23,000 runways, 11,800 instrument approaches.

The country, drawn by its airports

No coastline is drawn — the shape is made entirely of airports, coloured by field elevation. Tap a dot to name it.

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Runway length

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.

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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.

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