One current event that affected airport operations was Hurricane Sandy in the month of October and November 2012. Flight cancellations amounted to over 19000 flights. Most of the major airports were closed for some time, and when they opened, they had limited service. Carriers such as the United, Delta, and American Airlines were forced to cancel flight departures in three airports, in New York (Fox News).
I do not agree with the statement that airport operators are responsible for traffic (passengers and cargo) handling services at North America airports. This is because an airport operator’s responsibility is to provide secure airport facilities. This includes providing local law enforcement support to the air carrier and airport security personnel. The air carriers carry out the duty handling passenger and cargo traffic.
Airports in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems are classified into four categories. These are the large, medium, small hubs and the non-hub airports. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to identify the very busy commercial service airports utilizes the word hub (7). The large hubs airports encompass at least one percent of the total U.S passenger enplanements. Medium hub airports account for total passenger enplanements between 0.25 and one percent. The small hubs have between 0.05 and 0.25 total passenger enplanements while the non-hub airports have less than 0.05 of the total passenger enplanements.
Types of airports that need to be certified under Part 139 of the FAR are those that the FAA administrator requires to have a certificate, has a server scheduled air carriers operations containing seats between 9 and 31 and the airports with server scheduled and unscheduled air carriers with 30 seats or more. The certification process requires the airport operators to submit an Airport Certification Manual (ACM) while applying for the Airport Operating Certificate (AOC).
Works Cited
FAA. National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems 2009. PDF file.
Fox News. "Hurricane Sandy grounds Northeast air travel; normal operations could be days
away | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. Associated Press, 29 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Jan. 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/10/28/hurricane-sandy-grounds-thousands-flights-newark-airport-suffers-most/
FAA. "Part 139 Airport Certification - What is Part 139?" FAA: Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan.
2013. http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/part139_cert/?p1=what
