NBAA: Super Bowl Operations Highlight Cooperation Between FAA, Industry

Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org

Washington, DC, February 6, 2012 – The National Business Aviation Association commended Federal Aviation Administration officials for successfully coordinating with aviation industry stakeholders to ensure that the weekend’s Super Bowl traffic in the Indianapolis area was ably handled with a minimum of delays.

“We’d like to thank the FAA and the other government agencies involved in managing the airspace around Indianapolis,” said Doug Carr, NBAA Vice President, Safety, Security & Regulation. “Government officials’ operational planning and coordination with industry minimized the disruption to air traffic.”

Dean Snell, Assistant Manager for the NBAA GA Desk, agreed with Carr’s assessment. “The key to a major event like this is pre-planning,” Snell said. “The Super Bowl committee did a great job coordinating with fixed-base operators in the Indianapolis area to get preliminary traffic numbers, and Indianapolis Center, TRACON and airport tower personnel provided vital assistance. Procedures were published well in advance, and air traffic controllers were able to utilize offload routes to handle overflow.”

Snell noted another key in promoting efficient traffic flow was the decision not to use slot restrictions for aircraft flying into and out of the Indianapolis area. “On the arrivals side, there are much better tools that the FAA has available,” Snell said. “When talking about departure flow at such a significant event, slots would certainly have hindered that flow.

“As you can imagine, not everyone showed up exactly when they were filed to depart,” Snell added. “The FBOs have the aircraft staged the best they can, but if someone with a specific ‘slot’ to depart happened to be blocked on the ramp, that could have lead to delays.”

Snell also noted the role NBAA’s General Aviation Desk played in helping make the flights to and from Indianapolis flow smoothly. “We see ourselves as the voice for our membership,” Snell explained. “We”re heavily involved throughout the year in the planning process, and the FAA does listen to us. The key role for the GA Desk is disseminating information to Members in advance of major events.”

###

Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world’s largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.

Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.