Air Traffic Activity Data System (ATADS) Guide
The ATADS (Air Traffic Activity Data System) database lets you look up the number of operations (take-offs and landings) at any airport. Some of the data is subject to change. Typically, the data is updated on the 20th of each month with the previous month’s information.
This guide provides instructions for generating:
- An operations report for any single airport
- A ranking report that compares total operations for a group of airports
To generate an operations report for an airport
Suppose you’re wondering how many take-offs and landings happened at Chicago O’Hare Airport from 2005 to 2007. Follow the steps below to find the answer.
- Print this page to have a copy of the instructions available as you follow these procedures.
- Navigate to the ATADS home page: http://aspm.faa.gov/main/atads.asp
- Click Towers.

- In the Find box, type the three-letter airport
code for O’Hare (ORD), or, select O’Hare in the list of airports. (For a list
of all airport codes, visit http://www.oag.com).

- Select the Yearly option.

- Next to From, select 2005, and
next to To, select 2007. (To look up data for one year, use the same
year in both boxes. You can also look up data by month, day, or a date range.)

- Click Run.
Your query generates the following “Period Report”:

The numbers in the report represent all “operations” — both landings and take-offs — for the time period you requested.
Here are the meanings of the column heading abbreviations:
- AC — Air Carrier
- Air Taxi (AT) — aircraft designed to have a maximum seating capacity of 60 seats or less or a maximum payload capacity of 18,000 pounds or less carrying passengers or cargo for hire or compensation.
- GA — General Aviation
- MIL — Military
Important: To determine the number of flights, divide the total number of operations in half.
- To start a new query, close the Report
window. Then click Change Filter.

To generate a ranking report for a group of airports
- Print this page to have a copy of the instructions available as you follow these procedures.
- If the ATADS home page is not already open, navigate to http://aspm.faa.gov/main/atads.asp, and then click Towers.
- Select the Ranking option.

- Select the airports you want to rank.
You can either click a button for one of the preset groups of airports, such as OEP 35, or you can select specific airports from the list.
Note: The “OEP 35” airports are the 35 busiest commercial airports in the U.S.
- Specify a date range. For example, select the Yearly
option.

- Next to From and To,
select specific years. (To look up data for one year, use the same year in
both boxes. You can also look up data by month, day, or a date range.)

- Click Run.
Your query generates a Ranking Report that looks like this:


