How does Nantucket Memorial Airport Operate?
The following is intended as a guide to Nantucket residents and visitors and not intended to portray any arrival or departure procedures for use by local or transient aircraft operating into or out of Nantucket Memorial Airport.

The following pages have been designed with images, descriptions and links to allow the user to navigate easily between pages.

1) This page describes several of the most commonly used runway configurations and under what kind of wind, weather and traffic conditions each configuration might be used.  Figures 1 through 10 on this page are thumbnail images that may be enlarged by clicking on the image.  

2) Enlarging the image will take the user to a related page providing a visual display of the runway/runways in use for each configuration.  

3) Next follow the link captioned "View Typical Flight Tracks Associated with this Runway Configuration" to see actual flight track plots taken from our MegadataTM flight tracking system showing where airplanes actually fly for each configuration.  A description of neighborhoods that are affected by each configuration is also provided on this page.

The Airport has made flight tracks available for viewing by the public on a near real time basis at our AirportMonitorTM web site.


The Airport and the FAA.  Who is in charge of what?

Nantucket Memorial Airport is responsible for operating and maintaining airport facilities and for ensuring runways, taxiways and other facilities are in good working condition, meet FAA regulations and are available for use.  The Airport does not determine which runways are in use at any particular time, except when a particular runway is not available for use because of some physical reason, such as runway maintenance or snow removal.

The FAA  is responsible for managing Nantucket's airspace and for ensuring the safe and expeditious flow of traffic. This is accomplished through a coordinated effort between Nantucket Air Traffic Control Tower (Nantucket ATCT) located at the Airport and Cape Terminal Radar Approach Control (Cape TRACON) located at Otis Air Force Base on the Cape.  Nantucket ATCT is responsible for selecting the runway(s) in use at any particular time.  Refer to the FAA website for more details.

What determines which runways the FAA chooses?

Nantucket ’s airfield layout, illustrated in Figure 1, consists of three runways, which vary in length from 3,125 feet to 6,303 feet.  Nantucket ’s runways are aligned in three directions with runway ends pointing toward six distinct compass headings.  Aircraft must generally take off and land into the wind, so the availability of specific runway configurations is determined by aircraft type, wind speed and direction, and other weather conditions. The runway layout provides necessary operating flexibility given Nantucket ’s offshore location and highly variable wind conditions.  Non-coastal airports, where wind conditions vary less, may have a simpler airfield layout and fewer required operating configurations.

Figure 1
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Runway Use Configurations

We use several primary runway configurations at Nantucket .  The operational capacities range from a maximum of approximately 120 operations (takeoff or landing)  per hour when the weather is good, winds are light, and two runways are available, to fewer than 64 hourly operations for a single runway configuration when weather is poor.
Nantucket ’s highest capacity configurations have two active runways enabling FAA controllers to segregate arriving aircraft of different size and performance classes into three or four arrival streams.  High capacity runway configurations are necessary during Nantucket's peak vacation season.  When poor wind and weather conditions restrict the airport to low capacity configurations, FAA Controllers have just one or two instrument runways available.

Dual Runway Configurations

As shown in Figures 2 to 6,  two available runways maximize the airport’s operating efficiency by permitting air traffic control to segregate aircraft of different size and performance classes into multiple arrival/departure streams.  Conversely, airfield capacity drops significantly when the airport is restricted to a one-runway configuration with a single arrival/departure stream.  Common to all Dual Runway configurations is good visibility and higher cloud ceilings.  Figures 2 to 10 depict some of the most common arrival and departure runway configurations, however, air traffic demand and varying weather conditions can require the use of other configurations.

Figures 2 to 4 show dual runway configurations commonly used when traffic demand requires more arrivals than departures.  This situation can occur at the beginning of a busy Summer weekend on Thursday and Friday afternoons and again on Saturday morning.

Figure 2, to the right, represents a typical Summer flow during good weather and when prevailing winds are from the west or southwest.  Landings occur on Runways 24 and 30, while departures occur from Runway 24.  Most single engine aircraft and some Cessna 402 air taxis will land on Runway 30, while higher performance aircraft (twin propeller, turboprop and jet aircraft) will land on Runway 24.

Figure 2
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Figure 3
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Figure 3, to the left, represents a typical traffic flow during good weather and when prevailing winds are from the north or northeast.  This configuration can occur during the Summer months after a frontal passage and usually lasts for a day or two before returning to a more typical southwest wind pattern. During other months of the year (Fall, Winter, Spring), when northeast winds are more prevalent, this pattern can last for longer periods of time.  Landings occur on Runways 6 and 33, while departures occur from Runway 6.


Figure 4, to the right, is similar to the arrival and departure pattern seen in Figure 2.  Landings occur on Runways 24 and 33, while departures occur from Runway 24.  Once again, this traffic flow occurs during good weather and when prevailing winds are from the west or northwest.  In this configuration, aircraft landing on Runway 33 must be capable of landing and holding short of Runway 24 when simultaneous landings are taking place.  Therefore, Runway 33 is typically used for slower and lighter single engine aircraft arrivals.

Figure 4
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Figure 5
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Figures 5 and 6 show dual runway configurations commonly used when traffic demand requires more departures than arrivals.  This situation can occur at the end of a busy Summer weekend on Sunday afternoons/evening and Monday mornings.

Figure 5, to the left, shows landings occurring on Runway 24, while departures are using Runways 24 and 15.  Jets and turboprops, aircraft requiring longer runways for takeoff, will use Runway 24 and smaller single engine and twin propeller aircraft will depart from either Runway 15 or 24. Using dual runways in this manner assists in meeting the peak departure demand.


Figure 6, to the right, shows landings occurring on Runway 6, while departures are using Runways 6 and 15.  Winds are from the east to southeast and good visibility prevails.  Jets and turboprops, aircraft requiring longer runways for takeoff, will use Runway 6 and smaller single engine and twin propeller aircraft will depart from either Runway 6 or 15. This is another example of using  dual runways to meet heavy departure demand.

Figure 6
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Single Runway Configurations

 Figures 7 to 10 depict situations when only one runway is available for landings and departures, due either to low demand or poor weather.  Common to all Single Runway configurations during poor weather (low visibility/low cloud ceilings/high winds/snow removal) is a significant reduction in airport capacity.

Figure 7
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Figure 7, to the left, shows landings and departures occurring on Runway 24.  During poor weather conditions (low ceilings and poor visibility), Nantucket Memorial Airport is equipped with two Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) for making a precision approach and landing.  An ILS has existed on Runway 24 for many years, with approaches to the airport beginning offshore of Quidnet and Squam and proceeding straight in along the ILS path to the runway.

An ILS to Runway 6 was installed in the Spring of 2005, thereby allowing precision instrument approaches to be made in either direction to our longest runway.


Figure 8, to the right, shows landings and departures occurring on Runway 6.   The recently installed ILS to Runway 6 is expected to bring added safety and noise abatement benefits.  In the past, with only one ILS approach available at Nantucket Memorial Airport, poor weather required the use of Runway 24, even on days when the wind would favor the use of Runway 6.  Now aircraft will have two ILS approaches available and either could be used depending on the prevailing wind at the time.  The ILS to Runway 6, being flown entirely over water, has obvious noise abatement benefits as well.

Figure 8
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Figure 9
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Figure 9, to the left, shows landings and departures occurring on Runway 33.  This runway configuration is most common during the Fall, Winter and Spring when changing weather and wind patterns occur most frequently.  Usually associated with this runway configuration are strong northwesterly winds.  Since there is not an Instrument Landing System approach to Runway 33, ceilings of 380 feet or higher are required to use this runway during instrument conditions.  Normally, Runway 33 use is limited to times of good visibility and higher ceilings allowing pilots to make visual approaches and landings.


Figure 10, to the right, shows landings and departures occurring on Runway 15.  Similar to the Runway 33 configuration, Runway 15 use is most common during the Fall, Winter and Spring when changing weather and wind patterns occur most frequently.  Usually associated with this runway configuration are strong southerly or southeasterly winds.  Normally, Runway 15 use is limited to times of good visibility and higher ceilings allowing pilots to make visual approaches and landings.

Figure 10
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