What is an ARTCC?
An ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) is the ATC facility responsible for aircraft flying at high altitudes between airports. Controllers at a center handle the cruise portion of a flight, managing traffic along airways and jet routes.
The US has 20 ARTCCs, and together they cover every square mile of the continental United States. Each one controls a massive chunk of airspace, often spanning several states.
What center controllers do
Most of a center controller's job involves keeping aircraft separated while they cruise at flight level. Sounds simple. It isn't.
Traffic flows cross each other. Aircraft climb through your airspace. Others descend into it. Severe weather forces reroutes. Military airspace activates and blocks a route. A busy arrival rush into a major airport stacks up aircraft across three sectors simultaneously.
Center controllers:
- Maintain 5 nautical mile lateral separation between aircraft
- Assign flight levels and manage altitude transitions
- Clear aircraft along airways and direct routing
- Hand off traffic to adjacent centers or down to TRACONs
- Reroute traffic around weather, military areas, and congestion
The 20 US centers
Each center is identified by a three-letter code starting with Z. Some of the busiest:
New York Center (ZNY) covers the northeastern corridor from New York through Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Some of the densest en-route traffic in the world flows through here.
Los Angeles Center (ZLA) handles Southern California and Nevada. Arrivals into LAX, departures climbing out, and transcontinental traffic all meet in this airspace.
Atlanta Center (ZTL) controls the southeastern US. Every flight into Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson passes through ZTL, plus traffic between the northeast and Florida.
Other centers include Chicago (ZAU), Fort Worth (ZFW), Houston (ZHU), Kansas City (ZKC), Denver (ZDV), Miami (ZMA), Cleveland (ZOB), Indianapolis (ZID), Memphis (ZME), Minneapolis (ZMP), Washington (ZDC), Boston (ZBW), Jacksonville (ZJX), Salt Lake City (ZLC), Albuquerque (ZAB), Oakland (ZOA), and Seattle (ZSE).
All 20 are available in radarcontrol.io.
Center vs TRACON
Center airspace sits above TRACON airspace. Centers generally handle traffic above 18,000 feet (FL180), though they also manage lower altitudes in areas far from major airports where no TRACON exists.
The key differences:
- Center separation is 5nm lateral (TRACON uses 3nm)
- Center controllers handle larger areas with fewer aircraft per square mile
- Traffic in center airspace is mostly level, flying established routes
- TRACON traffic is constantly climbing, descending, and turning
When an arrival needs to descend into a TRACON's airspace, the center controller hands the aircraft off. When a departure climbs out of the TRACON, it gets handed up to center.
Sectors
No single controller works the entire center. Each ARTCC is divided into sectors, and each sector has its own controller (or team). A typical center has 20-40 sectors, though not all are staffed at the same time. During quiet overnight periods, sectors get combined. During a morning rush, they split apart.
In radarcontrol.io
radarcontrol.io includes all 20 US ARTCCs plus 40+ international center airspaces. Each has real waypoints, airways, entry/exit points, and SID/STAR procedures for the airports within.
You manage arrivals and departures, issue altitude and heading instructions, clear aircraft along STARs, and hand traffic off at sector boundaries.
Try these centers:
- New York Center (ZNY) - Dense northeast corridor traffic. Play now.
- Atlanta Center (ZTL) - Southeast hub with heavy arrival flows into ATL. Play now.
- Los Angeles Center (ZLA) - West coast traffic with complex crossing flows. Play now.
Related: What is a TRACON? | What is a handoff? | What are airways?
Try it free - control all 20 US center airspaces in your browser.