Definition
Aircraft in operation anywhere in the airspace and on those areas of an airport surface used for taxiing, taking off, and landing, excluding loading ramps and parking areas.
Plain English
All the aircraft moving in the air or on the parts of the airport where they taxi, take off, and land. Aircraft sitting at the gate or parked on a ramp don't count.
Context Anchor
You will see this term in air traffic control, airport operations, and procedures that describe how aircraft are separated and managed.
Derivation
Traffic originally referred to movement, trade, or the flow of people and goods. In aviation, that idea becomes the flow of aircraft through the air and across active parts of an airport.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots must recognize when their aircraft is part of air traffic so they can follow ATC instructions and maintain safe distances from others.
Intuition Check
Do not read air traffic as only aircraft in the sky. In this FAA sense, it also includes aircraft operating on the airport surface, but not aircraft parked or being loaded.
Example Sentence 1
The controller sequenced the arriving air traffic for runway 27.
Example Sentence 2
Controllers sequence arrivals to keep air traffic moving safely through busy terminal airspace.