FAA Amends Class D and Class E Airspace Over New Bedford, MA, Effective October 2026

What the rule does

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a final rule amending Class D and Class E airspace over New Bedford, Massachusetts. The rule adds an extension to the existing Class D airspace on the northwest side of New Bedford Regional Airport, adds an update to the airport's name and geographic coordinates in both Class D and Class E airspace legal descriptions, and replaces outdated terminology in the Class D legal description to comply with current FAA guidance.

Background and rationale

According to the rule, a review of current airspace revealed that the New Bedford, MA Class D airspace did not properly contain Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations on the northwest side of the airport. Specifically, the FAA states that arrivals on the RNAV Runway 14 approach and departures to the northwest were not properly contained within the existing Class D boundaries. The FAA's authority to issue this rule derives from Title 49 of the United States Code, Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart I, Section 40103, under which the agency is charged with prescribing regulations to assign the use of airspace necessary to ensure the safety of aircraft and the efficient use of airspace.

Mechanism

The rule adds an extension to the Class D airspace within 1.8 miles each side of the 308° bearing from New Bedford Regional Airport, extending from the 4-mile radius of the airport to 4.7 miles northwest of the airport — an extension described as 0.7 miles long and 3.6 miles wide. The rule also updates the airport name in both the Class D and Class E legal descriptions from "New Bedford Municipal Airport" to "New Bedford Regional Airport," and corrects the airport's geographic coordinates from latitude 41°40'35'' N, longitude 70°57'28'' W to latitude 41°40'36'' N, longitude 70°57'28'' W — a change of one second of latitude. Additionally, the term "Airport/Facility Directory" in the Class D airspace legal description is replaced with "Chart Supplement" to comply with current FAA guidance.

Rulemaking history and correction

The FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Docket No. FAA-2026-4819 in the Federal Register (91 FR 24760) on May 7, 2026. No comments were received in response. Subsequent to publication of the NPRM, the FAA discovered a typographical error in the preamble: the bearing from the airport for the Class D extension was listed as 318° but should have been 308°, as correctly stated in the proposed airspace legal description in the NPRM's amendment section. The FAA characterizes this as a ministerial correction and determined that recirculating the NPRM for additional public notice and comment was unnecessary.

The Class D and Class E airspace designations amended by this rule are published in paragraphs 5000 and 6005 of FAA Order JO 7400.11, which is incorporated by reference in 14 CFR 71.1 on an annual basis. The rule amends FAA Order JO 7400.11K, dated August 4, 2025, and effective September 15, 2025. The FAA determined that this regulation involves an established body of technical regulations for which frequent and routine amendments are necessary to keep them operationally current, and certified that the rule is expected to result in, at most, de minimis costs from compliance with applicable operating requirements or minor flight rerouting for operators choosing to navigate around the controlled airspace.

What to watch

The final rule amending 14 CFR part 71 takes effect at 0901 UTC on October 29, 2026. The amendments will also be published in the next update to FAA Order JO 7400.11.

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