Aircraft Disinsection in Mountain View, CA: Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ)

About Moffett Federal Airfield

Moffett’s 9,197-ft main runway dwarfs everything else on the peninsula, a legacy of Navy airships and decades of federal flying. Today NASA Ames anchors the research side while a private operator manages the airfield, and access is limited to based and authorized aircraft. The corporate fleets that do operate here include some of the longest-legged jets in the Valley. When one of them files for a destination with a disinsection requirement, the cabin is treated and certified on the ground at Moffett.

On the field at NUQ

Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ) sits 3 miles north of Mountain View, California, at an elevation of 37 feet. The main runway, 14L/32R, is 9,197 feet of concrete. The field has an FAA control tower. NUQ is a U.S. Customs landing rights airport, where international arrivals clear by prior arrangement. The FBO at NUQ is operated by the airport itself; we treat the aircraft on its ramp or in your hangar. A pre-embarkation treatment here is timed to your boarding and finished before anyone steps aboard.

Where the aircraft disinsection requirement comes from

Whatever the destination, the mechanism is the same: the arriving country requires the aircraft to have been disinsected, and pre-embarkation treatment at the last port before that country, performed on the empty aircraft, is a method it accepts. For a non-stop flight out of NUQ, that last port is NUQ.

From NUQ the requirement is mostly a Pacific one: Australia and New Zealand require disinsection on every arriving international aircraft, and the Cook Islands, Fiji and the Solomon Islands require it too. Many itineraries from Mountain View stop in Hawaii, which then becomes the last US port and the place for pre-embarkation treatment; non-stop departures are treated here at NUQ. Australia, New Zealand, Chile, French Polynesia appear on the list as well.

The aircraft disinsection process on the NUQ ramp

On the day, the sequence at NUQ is simple: our crew is at your hangar or FBO ahead of time, the cabin is confirmed empty and prepared, the treatment is applied to the WHO method through cabin, flight deck and holds, and the aircraft rests, ventilates and is released for boarding after the required wait. Your crew receives the certificate and the details to enter on the General Declaration before the door closes.

NUQ at a glance

Countries that require disinsection, served from NUQ

From NUQ: Cook Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, French Polynesia, and the rest of the destinations we serve. The full table of aircraft disinsection requirements by country covers every destination we have verified for NUQ departures. Australia and New Zealand carry operator paperwork we help with; if either is on a Mountain View itinerary, start early.