Podcast: How Air Traffic Works
How does air traffic control work? Learn all about it from our experts on Episode 4 of “The Air Up There.”
By C. Troxell, FAA Office of Communications
The FAA keeps 5,000 airplanes moving safely through the sky every hour. How is this possible? Listen to Episode 4 of our podcast to hear it from our experts.
Listen to Episode 4 on our website and on Apple Podcasts.
In this episode, you will learn how the puzzle pieces fit together — from the tarmac to cruising altitude and back down — and how an orchestra of more than 14,000 air traffic controllers, in unison with pilots and airport personnel, creates a symphony of flights moving safely and efficiently across the nation while faced with a variety of constraints like weather, construction and heavy traffic areas. You’ll also hear about the critical role of airway transportation specialists, our Technical Operations personnel, who keep FAA equipment tuned up for controllers and pilots.
One of our interviewees in this episode is Jennifer Ross, the air traffic manager at the Command Center in Virginia, who illustrates the big picture of how the FAA manages flights across the entire country through advanced planning. We also interviewed Chris Keyes, a controller at Washington Center, who explains how airplanes are handed off from one controller to another, from one type of facility to another. Additionally, in an interview with Denver District Technical Operations Manager Tracey Salazar, we obtained insight into the work of more behind-the-scenes heroes — the technicians who ensure that FAA systems used for air traffic control work correctly.
Ross is a commercial-rated pilot who has worked at the Command Center for the last four years, with 11 years of prior experience as a controller at Jacksonville Center, which manages high-altitude flights. Ross talks about how it all starts, from the pilot’s perspective — the coordination between the dispatcher, controller and pilot to get a plane from taxiing to the runway to takeoff. “You get your clearance to take off from the tower, which is my favorite part. I love right when you lift off. It’s such a great feeling. But really there’s only about five miles around the tower generally that you’re actually talking to a tower controller.”
Ross then explains a “radar handoff,” when a tower controller transfers the flight to a terminal radar approach controller who sees flights as targets on a screen. Then at around 24,000 feet, that controller will start the same handoff process to a center controller, also monitoring flights on a radar display, Ross explains. The national airspace system (NAS) — a network of air navigation facilities, air traffic control facilities, airports and technology — comprises 21 centers, each covering about 500 square miles of airspace. As a flight gets closer to its destination, it is handed off from the center to a terminal approach control facility to tower on its way to landing.
While many flights run right on schedule, various constraints can spur flight reroutes and delays. And, as Ross explains, as a passenger you may not see bad weather out the window of the plane, or in the forecast for your destination airport, but weather hundreds of miles away could be affecting your arrival time. “There could be massive thunderstorms in Kansas City and now a route has closed that you normally would have gone on that flight, and now the Command Center needs to come up with a new route for you,” she says.
While the FAA has been able to shorten routes and improve flight efficiency via GPS technology, the Command Center still plays a critical function in providing significant route management for large flows of traffic due to the complexity of these flows. And controllers and traffic management specialists also fulfill the critical role of separating aircraft, both horizontally and vertically. Ross talks about the various separation standards. “You can only land so many aircraft on so much pavement, especially when you talk about bigger aircraft and smaller aircraft…so there’s extra space we allow for that.”
So what goes on at the Command Center to manage this complex operation? Planning for a single day happens about two or three days in advance, Ross explains. Traffic management specialists are always looking ahead to best prepare for what’s to be expected. Runway construction, space launches, military activities and major sports events are just a few of the variables that impact their decision-making. These are scheduled activities, but then there’s the unexpected…
“We had the Chicago fire not too long ago that shut down an entire 500 square miles of airspace. We had to coordinate and react quickly so that you’re moving aircraft out of the way of any kind of hazards while still maintaining some efficiency to get folks where they need to go and not strand everybody,” Ross says. “It’s really coordination with the airlines, coordination with the facilities, having that one centralized place where we can message up to our leadership. So that really brings in all the elements.”
In another segment with Chris Keyes, who has worked as a controller managing high-altitude airspace southwest of Washington, D.C. for 10 years, you’ll hear what it’s like to work aircraft at a more local, rather than national, level. Keyes gets into the intricacies of how he hands off planes and what it’s like to handle an in-flight emergency.
As a center controller, Keyes and his colleagues handle many overflights, flights from overseas, in addition to the domestic flights that are handed off to them from terminal radar approach controllers. Center controllers conduct the sequencing for arrivals.
“We basically mesh everything together into a nice orderly flow with the ‘tunnels in the sky’ concept that routes are built around, and then adjust when things don’t exactly go as planned — when weather moves through or some special-use airspace becomes active and the flows have to change,” Keyes said.
Keyes describes the system of flight routes as a “bowl of spaghetti,” with the aircraft winding around each other across many layers of airspace. He adds that the routes are built for “routine and structure,” allowing controllers and pilots to operate safely and efficiently. Controllers must be able to take a 2D presentation on their screen and translate it to a 3D model of the airspace in their minds, with planes flying at various altitudes.
In managing flights, Keyes explains that aircraft, depicted on the screen as a target, has a data block comprising a call sign (identifier), the altitude they are assigned as well as current altitude, speed and more. As an aircraft nears 24,000 feet, a terminal radar approach controller passes its info along to a center controller.
“As I’m sitting there working and I’m focusing on my airspace that I’m responsible for, I’ll see aircraft typically from the periphery inbound towards my area of jurisdiction and I’ll see them flashing. And that’s my indication that something is headed my way,” he said.
The flashing indicates handoff status of the flight. A click of the mouse accepts the handoff and from there, Keyes knows what the flight is doing, and he is in communication with the pilot. He makes sure the pilot has all the info they need while flying through that sector, including other flights in the airspace. Then as the flight nears exiting the airspace, he hands it off to a terminal approach controller.
Keyes describes the flight process as 1–2–3–2–1: tower, TRACON, center, TRACON, tower. However, in alternate scenarios, a center controller may work a flight all the way to the ground. This happens when plane is departing from or flying into an uncontrolled airport, without a tower, for example. In this case, a center controller gives the pilot instructions for departing. Controllers are able to track the aircraft via its squawk code broadcast from the aircraft’s transponder to air traffic control systems, Keyes explains.
“Our radar equipment recognizes it, and that way it can correlate that radar return with that specific aircraft… We have a radar return for that specific aircraft… We’ll handle them the same way — get them up to their requested altitude and on course, and blend them into the flow of other traffic.”
Keyes also talks about routing planes into a holding pattern — an oval track — when adverse weather is in the airspace; the importance of communication in the air traffic control profession; the fulfillment of the job; and handling emergencies.
“It’s important to always remember that we’re responsible for that safety; we’re responsible to give the information that those pilots need,” he said. “And you never know when a routine situation becomes very extraordinary just like that, in the blink of an eye. So you always have to treat your routine work as if it’s going to be extraordinary in five seconds.”
Just as a controller’s routine work can suddenly turn into a lifesaving event at a moment’s notice, the role of an FAA technician can shift from conducting routine maintenance to replacing equipment in disaster-ravaged areas or going to great lengths to reach remote worksites.
Tracey Salazar talks about the role of airway safety transportation specialists, the technicians who maintain, repair and restore the communication and navigation equipment that both controllers and pilots rely upon for safe and efficient flight. Denver District, encompassing Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, is responsible for about 3,800 of the 77,000 total pieces of equipment in the NAS.
Salazar discusses some of the challenges her team faces across a large area with many remote equipment sites on mountaintops, some as high as 12,000 feet. “During the wintertime when we have outages and things that we have to respond to, oftentimes we’re chartering helicopters or we’re in Sno Cats to get to them.”
In describing the big picture of Tech Ops, Salazar emphasizes the professionalism of the organization, which ensures reliability of equipment at well over 99 percent nationally. FAA technicians, Salazar said, not only perform hands-on maintenance, but they also play a crucial role in remote monitoring of systems, prioritizing maintenance, and developing contingency plans for service outages.
And with hazards being part of the job for these technicians, employee safety is paramount. Tech Ops has a robust training program and work practices in place to keep its employees as safe as possible while performing jobs that frequently present risk.
“We’re in hurricane season right now and when you talk about technicians going in after hurricanes made landfall, you can encounter all sorts of things like snakes, downed power lines,” Salazar said. “Our folks have the [personal protective equipment] and safety training to be able to be aware of what they are going into, to mitigate those safety risks to our people.”
Together, air traffic controllers and technicians, among many other professionals in the FAA, keep the NAS the safest and most efficient aerospace system in the world.
The Air Up There is a podcast for people who are curious about the wide world of aviation. Join the FAA as we nerd out about the future of flight, drones, and ways to make the National Airspace System safer, smarter, and more efficient. Listen and subscribe on our website or on Apple Podcasts.
Disclaimer: This story and the associated podcast are not and should not be construed as government endorsement of products, services, and organizations mentioned. Views expressed by participants are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the FAA, or the United States government.
