The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) has conducted aircraft operations counts at the non-towered airports in the 12-county, four-state Delaware Valley Regional Airport System Plan (RASP) area since 1986. Aircraft operations counts and annual estimates of activity are essential for planning and programming of airport improvements. While towered airports generally have access to this information through air traffic controllers, the general aviation and reliever airports that make up the majority of facilities in the region rely primarily on estimates for their traffic data.

DVRPC’s cyclical aircraft operations counting program focuses on the counting of non-towered National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) airports and is made possible by funding through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The regional NPIAS airports are counted in a three-year program. The resulting aviation operations data created from these annual counting cycles provides facility-level details on based aircraft; estimated average daily, seasonal, and annual fixed-wing operations; and helicopter activity estimates.