Chapter 26. Alert Areas

Section 2. Criteria

Alert areas may established for either military or civil aviation activities.
NOTE-

Before proposing an alert area, consider whether the publication of an advisory note on aeronautical charts near the affected location would provide satisfactory notice of the activity to nonparticipating pilots.
Establish of an alert area is not a prerequisite to conduct any type of flight activity and does not restrict IFR or VFR traffic.
Alert areas do not impose any flight restrictions or communications or ATC clearance requirements on pilots either operating within, or transiting the area.

Limit the establishment of alert areas to the following types of operations:

Concentrated Student Pilot Training.
1. A high volume of flight training operations at one or more airports in a given area. The volume of activity should exceed 250,000 local operations (as defined in FAA Order JO 7210.3, Chapter 13, Facility Statistical Data, Reports, and Forms) annually and be generated primarily by student pilot training in fixed-wing and/or rotary-wing aircraft.
2. A student pilot training area beyond a 20 NM radius of the airport that contains unusually intensive training operations.
Unusual Aeronautical Activity. There are no specific criteria established for this category. Alert areas should not be established in lieu of other special use airspace expressly defined and established for nonhazardous activities (e.g., MOAs). Each proposal will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine its significance to the flying public and aviation safety.
NOTE-

One example of an alert area fitting this category is A-381, designated to identify the unusual concentration and volume of aviation activity in the U.S. Gulf Coast/Gulf of America area.