Air Traffic Organization - Facilities

Facilities

The Air Traffic Organization is composed of 35,000 employees. Many of these employees, including more than 14,000 air traffic controllers,5,000 air traffic supervisors and air traffic managers,1,100 engineers and 6,100 maintenance technicians, directly serve customers.

Some 8,000 additional employees work in a wide variety of jobs to sustain the operations of the ATO. These employees research, plan and build air traffic control equipment and programs; manage payroll and benefits programs; provide procurement service for both the ATO and the FAA at large; maintain relationships with the aviation industry and the general public; and ensure that the environment and ATO employees are protected.

The ATO operates 315 air traffic control facilities.

Types of Facilities:

Airport Traffic Control Towers
Each major airport maintains a control tower which houses air traffic controllers who monitor all aircraft taxiing, taking off and landing at that airport. They own the airspace up to 3,000 feet (910 m) above the airport and a radius of five miles (8 km) around the airport. Tower controllers have three different positions through which each rotate during their shift assignment: clearance delivery, ground control and local control.

Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC)
The Command Center exercises command, control and oversight of air traffic activity within the NAS. The facility, located in northern Virginia, coordinates all air traffic movement, both civil and military, in domestic and oceanic airspace. Its staff strategically manages air traffic to minimize delays and congestion, while maximizing the overall use of the NAS. Decisions are carried out in cooperation with airline personnel, traffic management specialists and controllers at affected facilities.

Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs)
The airspace over the U.S. is divided into 21 large areas (20 are in the contiguous U.S. plus Alaska). These centers are designated with a three-letter identifier starting with the letter Z, such as ZSE and ZDC for Seattle and Washington. Center controllers monitor aircraft in the en route phase of its flight. They receive traffic from TRACONs and hand off traffic to TRACONs

Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACONs)
Controllers in TRACONs monitor aircraft in the departure, descent and approach phases of a flight. Each TRACON can handle air traffic for several different airports in its vicinity. Recently, TRACONs in major metropolitan areas have been consolidated to handle many busy airports from a single facility. Consolidated TRACONs include Potomac Consolidated TRACON, New York TRACON, Boston Consolidated TRACON, Southern California TRACON and Northern California TRACON.

Combined Center Radar Approach Control (CERAPs)
The FAA has a number of CERAPS, essentially a cross between a Center and a TRACON.

The William J. Hughes Technical Center
The William J. Hughes Technical Center serves as the national scientific test base for the FAA. Technical Center programs include testing and evaluation in air traffic control, communications, navigation, airports, aircraft safety, and security. They also include long-range development of innovative aviation systems and concepts, development of new air traffic control equipment and software, and modification of existing systems and procedures.

Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center
The FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City is best known for the FAA Academy, which provides technical and managerial training and development for the FAA workforce and the aviation community. Notably, the Academy trains new air traffic controllers. The Aeronautical Center also houses the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, which is involved in such diverse aviation matters as drop-down oxygen masks, emergency lighting, water evacuation plans and crash tests; the FAA Logistics Center, which offers repair and technical support for air traffic control equipment and aircraft for the U.S. and 44 other countries; the Transportation Safety Institute, which examines aviation safety; and the Civil Aviation Registry, which records every privately owned U.S. plane and licensed pilot.