Runway Usage: San Francisco Airport Nighttime Operations and Noise Abatement Data

Data starting in January 2005 shows runway usage at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), updated monthly. It quantifies air carrier departures and arrivals by runway, including percent utilization, to support the Nighttime Preferential Runway Use program aimed at reducing aircraft noise. The dataset is created by the City of San Francisco from Federal Aviation Administration flight details processed through SFO's Airport Noise and Operations Management System (ANOMS).

Use Cases

• Modeling the effectiveness of nighttime noise abatement programs based on runway utilization percentages.
• Analyzing seasonal or long-term trends in air carrier operations based on monthly departure and arrival counts.
• Correlating runway usage patterns with weather or traffic conditions mentioned as limiting factors for the program.
• Supporting community reporting and transparency for the Airport Director's Reports as indicated in the description.

Strengths

• Time series data starting in January 2005, providing a long historical record.
• Data is updated monthly, allowing for near-current analysis.
• Explicitly linked to a formal noise abatement program with stated operational goals.
• Part of a related dataset ecosystem including Aircraft Noise Reports and Flight Operations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes the program cannot be used 100% of the time due to safety, weather, and traffic, indicating inherent operational gaps in the data.

Provenance

Source

City of San Francisco, sourced from the Federal Aviation Administration’s National Offload Program.

Collection Method

Flight details are processed into SFO’s Airport Noise and Operations Management System (ANOMS) where reports are generated.

Time Range

January 2005 onward.

Freshness

Updated monthly; last metadata update was 2026-03-15.

Geography

San Francisco International Airport (SFO), California, USA.