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About Airport Reference Codes
The Airport Reference Code (ARC) is a coding system developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to relate airport design criteria to the operational and physical characteristics of the airplane types that will operate at a particular airport. (The ARC is part of design standards established in the FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13, Airport Design, June 2008.)
The ARC has two components relating to the airport design aircraft. The first component, depicted by a letter, is the "approach category" and is based on aircraft approach speed. The second component, depicted by a Roman numeral, is the airplane "design group" and is based on airplane wingspan.
Generally, aircraft approach speed applies to runways and runway length-related features. Airplane wingspan primarily relates to separation-of-aircraft criteria and width-related features.
Airports expected to accommodate single-engine airplanes normally fall into Airport Reference Code A-I or B-I. Airports serving larger general aviation and commuter-type planes are usually Airport Reference Code B-II or B-III. Small to medium-sized airports serving air carriers are usually Airport Reference Code C-III, while larger air carrier airports are usually Airport Reference Code D-VI or D-V.
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The Situation at Hayward Airport
The 2002 Hayward Airport Master Plan designates the Airport Reference Code for the airport as B-II. The "design aircraft" for the airport fitting that category is a Cessna Citation V (see picture).
As a result of recent increased operations (number of departures and landings) of medium-size business jet aircraft at the airport, the consultants claim that the existing ARC for Hayward is C-II. The design aircraft fitting that category is a Challenger CL601 (see picture).
The consultants have forecast that in the year 2020 the ARC for Hayward will be D-II, with the representative design aircraft being the Gulfstream IV (see picture). They are thus recommending that the revised airport layout plan submitted to the FAA for approval be based on ARC D-II, in order to avoid having to upgrade to that ARC in later years.
| Citation V (ARC B-II) | Challenger 601 (ARC C-II) | Gulfstream IV (ARC D-II) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approach speed (knots) | 107 | 125 | 149 |
| Wingspan (feet) | 52.25 | 64.33 | 77.83 |
| Length | 49.92 | 68.42 | 88.33 |
| Max. design takeoff weight (lb) | 15,900 | 44,600 | 74,600 |
| Max. fuel capacity (gal) | 861 | 2,983 | 4,917 |
Remember, the "design aircraft" is one that conducts at least 500 annual operations (one operation is one takeoff or landing). Because no one type of business jet conducts 500 annual operations at Hayward Airport, the consultants for the City of Hayward have combined the operations of a number of jet types to define the ARC for the airport. The jet operations at Hayward Airport used to support the higher recommended ARC (D-II) are the following for the period April 2007 to April 2008. Only the highest numbers of annual operations are listed.
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The current proposal (as of December 2008) is to keep Runway 10L-28R classified as ARC B-I, small airplanes exclusively.
