FAA Amends Standard Instrument Approach Procedures and Takeoff Minimums at Selected US Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration is amending, suspending, or removing Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and associated Takeoff Minimums and Obstacle Departure Procedures (ODPs) at certain airports, with the rule set for publication in the Federal Register on October 1, 2026. The amendments fall under 14 CFR Part 97.

The FAA says the changes stem from the adoption of new or revised criteria, changes in the National Airspace System, the commissioning of new navigational facilities, the addition of new obstacles, or changing air traffic requirements. All of the SIAP amendments in this rule were previously issued as FDC Permanent NOTAMs in response to immediate flight safety concerns. Because of what the agency describes as the close and direct relationship between these procedures and safety in air commerce, the FAA determined that public notice and comment procedures were impracticable and that good cause exists for making the changes effective in less than 30 days.

The changes are based on criteria contained in the U.S. Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS), applied to specific conditions at each affected airport. The complete regulatory description of each SIAP is recorded on FAA Form 8260, as modified by National Flight Data Center (NFDC) Permanent NOTAMs, and is incorporated by reference under applicable federal regulations. All SIAPs, Takeoff Minimums, and ODPs are available online free of charge through the National Flight Data Center, with copies also obtainable from the FAA Air Traffic Organization Service Area responsible for the affected airport. The compliance date for each procedure is specified in its individual amendatory provision.

This rule is part of a routine but continuous FAA process: approach and departure procedures are revised whenever new navigational aids come online, obstacles change, or airspace criteria are updated, and the agency regularly batches these changes into periodic Part 97 amendments. Because each individual SIAP change already took effect as an FDC Permanent NOTAM for safety reasons before this rule formalizes it, operators flying into the affected airports may already be operating under the revised minimums well before the Federal Register publication date.

For instrument-flight operations, this illustrates how safety-driven procedure changes bypass the normal notice-and-comment rulemaking timeline entirely, with the FAA citing good cause to make them effective in under 30 days. The underlying data for every affected airport is published through the National Flight Data Center, which remains the authoritative source operators and flight planners must check rather than relying on the Federal Register rule alone.

What remains to be seen is which specific airports and procedures are listed in the individual amendatory provisions, since the compliance date and scope vary procedure by procedure rather than applying uniformly across the rule.