- Messages
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| FAI | |
| Fairbanks Tower | |
| Level: | 7 |
| Type: | Tower and Approach Control |
| Facility Info | |
| Address: | 3800 University Ave S, Fairbanks, AK 99709 |
| Phone: | 907-474-0050 |
| Hours: | 0000-2359 |
| Region: | Western |
| District | Anchorage/Seattle |
| MMAC Travel Days | 9 |
Pay
CPC
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D3
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D2
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D1
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AG
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Locality
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CIP
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COLA
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Differential
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Staffing
CPC Total
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CPC Target
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% of Target
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CPC-Trainee %
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Trainee Total
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Training Time (years)
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Success %
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NCEPT
Category
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Gains (Nat'l Avg)
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Gains (Target)
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Releases
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Projections
% to Target
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Inbounds
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Outbounds
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Losses
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National Averages
Current CPC % to Target
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Projected CPC % to Target
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Operational Info
Fairbanks international airport is a Class Delta with a TRSA. With 4 Runways all in parallel one of which is a water lane we call the float pond and a gravel strip that is dual use for ski aircraft in winter and gravel in the summer.Fairbanks is the hub for aviation in interior Alaska. We have multiple flights daily to Anchorage and Seattle on Alaska airlines. We are also the Hub for Cargo and air taxi service to the interior of Alaska.
Operations Areas
Tower
There are 4 positions in the tower Clearance (CD), Ground (GC), Local (LC), and Local Assist (LA).
CD and GC are normally combined. GC only has two taxiways that parallel the runways. CD is required to enter all data to STARS for aircraft receiving TRSA service or flight following.
LC works the primary airport and is required to provide traffic advisories to the 2 satellite fields and 2 helipads within the Class D.
FAI tower has auto releases and is required to establish TRSA or IFR separation for departures. The traffic gets higher complexity when firefighting is added to the mix and pattern traffic to the Ski strip and 20L simultaneously.
TRACON
There are 5 positions in the TRACON West Radar (WR), East Radar (ER), Handoff 1 (HO1), Handoff 2 (HO2) and Approach Data (AD). The staffing for the TRACON is fluid and will vary hour to hour. Normally WR will work the positions combined unless the Military is flying then ER will be split off if no military flying is scheduled or expected HO1 will be staffed.
The TRACON covers FAI, FBK and EIL all towered airports and one non towered airport ENN. The TRACON falls under ZAN sectors 15 to the west and 16 to the east. The east side of the airspace butts up against JPARC one of the militaries largest airspace complexes and FAI supports multiple large force exercises annually.
Traffic
FAI is defined by seasonality. Winter will be very slow with many poor weather days. Summer will be busy with mostly VFR on a few days a year we get smoked out by wildfires in the area and will have a bad weather DAY in the summer. In the summer we add additional air carrier flights in the afternoon and evening and support the firefighting operation for the interior of Alaska. The traffic volume doubles from our slowest to busiest month. Generally, our busiest month is July or August with our busiest day being the day prior to Moose hunting season August 31st.
We have multiple air carrier flights to ANC and SEA daily and in the summer, we add flights to ORD, MSP, DEN, EDDF and CYDA. In the winter We will occasionally have to catch diverts from ANC when they have a snow event preventing Cargo aircraft form landing.
Here are the 2023 ops count numbers:
Tower Tracon Total
| 01/2023 | 5832 | 5281 | 11113 |
| 02/2023 | 5352 | 4589 | 9941 |
| 03/2023 | 8710 | 6754 | 15464 |
| 04/2023 | 7679 | 6040 | 13719 |
| 05/2023 | 11548 | 8493 | 20041 |
| 06/2023 | 13972 | 10100 | 24072 |
| 07/2023 | 14567 | 8832 | 23399 |
| 08/2023 | 13594 | 9626 | 23220 |
| 09/2023 | 12093 | 8192 | 20285 |
| 10/2023 | 8165 | 5660 | 13825 |
| 11/2023 | 6463 | 5088 | 11551 |
| 12/2023 | 5455 | 5052 | 10507 |
Training
Typical training progression:
AG:FD-CD-GC-LA
D2:LC- AD-HO1
D3: WR-HO2-ER
GC will train combined with CD and FD. LA sometimes will get certified prior to LC but normally the cert. happens at the same time as LC.
After RTF you will begin training on WR and in the winter you will work a combined WR/ER position. If your training team recommends you can certify on HO1 before WR to get the Pay bump to D3.
