Airport Master Plan November 1984

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5.4 5.5 Aircraft Mix Table 5 -3 forecasts the composition of single engine and multi- engine aircraft at Gateway using the mid -range fore- cast of total based aircraft as a basis. Forecast single engine and multi- engine aircraft are expected to be similar to aircraft operating at the field today. These are pre- dominantly piston aircraft under 8000 pounds gross weight with occasional use by aircraft up to 12,500 pounds gross weight. The forecasts assume a relatively slow rate of growth for light twin aircraft typical of the forecast growth rate for the central Minnesota aircraft fleet. Forecast Operations Table 5 -4 outlines historic and forecast aircraft operations (an operation is either a landing or a takeoff). As dis- cussed earlier, the historic operations estimates appear somewhat high when compared to other airports particularly for the years 1979 (1514 operations per based aircraft), 1981 (1059 operations per based aircraft), and 1982 (931 per based aircraft). A more probable number of operations of 710 operations per based aircraft was applied to the mid- range forecast of based aircraft. This compares favorably to the number of operations per based aircraft used in the current Metropolitan System Plan. It also is in the mid- range of FAA's recommended forecast guidelines for planning purposes. The guidelines recommend use of 500 operations per based aircraft for airports out of the metropolitan area and 1000 operations per based aircraft for airports within metropolitan regions. The forecast thus projects approximately 24,000 annual operations by 1994 increasing to over 35,000 annual opera- tions by the end of the 20 year planning period. The forecast also assumes that the proportion of itinerant operations will increase as the facilities are improved. By the year 2000 it is reasonable to expect a mix of about 458 itinerant operations and 558 local training and proficiency flights. 5 -5