Definition
An airport certificated under 14 CFR Part 139 that serves scheduled passenger operations of small air carrier aircraft (those with 30 or fewer passenger seats) and any unscheduled passenger operations of large air carrier aircraft (those with more than 30 passenger seats).
Plain English
A commercial airport that handles regular flights only with smaller airliners, plus occasional larger airline flights that aren't on a published schedule.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA airport certification and airport operations discussions, especially when describing what kinds of passenger airline operations an airport is approved to handle.
Derivation
The term comes from the FAA's four-tier classification system (Class I, II, III, IV) used to group certificated airports by the size and type of air carrier service they provide. The class number reflects the regulatory category, not size or quality.
Why Pilots Care
Determines whether the airport can legally be used for certain commercial flights, affecting alternate airport selection and flight planning.
Intuition Check
Do not confuse Class II Airport with airspace classes like Class B, Class C, or Class D. Here, Class II describes an airport certification category, not the airspace around the airport.
Example Sentence 1
Because the field is a Class II airport, it can host the daily regional commuter flights but only handles the larger jets when they arrive on charter.
Example Sentence 2
Class II Airports must meet Part 139 safety standards even though they do not regularly handle the largest airliners.