For my two entities to compare and contrast I chose airport ATC tower controllers and air route traffic control center controllers. This is all new to me so I apologize if I have some information wrong.
When I think of Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), I usually think of the towers located at airports for controlling takeoff/landing clearance for pilots, directing movement, among other duties. However, there are also Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) that have various duties once those flights are en route. In this blog, I will be discussing what the duties are of both of these types of controllers, and how they are similar and different. The entire air traffic control system is run by the FAA.
ATCT (Air Traffic Control Towers) is located at a majority of airports across the U.S. that have regularly scheduled flights. However, there are also many airports that are non-towered. In this case, other measures are taken to ensure safety and a controlled environment. ATCT handles all takeoff, landing, ground traffic, and clearances (and advice from their own observation). At major airports such as ATL or LAX, this can be a very complex and stressful job that requires a lot of concentration. Fun fact: I live 20 minutes away from Indianapolis International Airport, which is home to the 2nd tallest ATC tower in the U.S. and the ninth-largest in the world. It was built for 32 million and stands at 348ft high (Airport Technology, 2013). I will insert a picture down below.
For ARTCC's, there are 22 scattered throughout the United States (FAA, n.d.). One of these ARTCC facilities covers the areas in its sector they are assigned to. The U.S. airspace is divided into 21 zones/sectors. Their duties are many - they manage en route operations for all IFR traffic or basically monitors the aircraft once they leave the airport and handles all high altitude traffic (FAA, n.d.). The centers communicate via radio with pilots and have electronic access to nationwide radar data. This allows them to monitor the flight path, perform course adjustments, give advice to pilots regarding conditions, etc. They do not handle TRACON airspace or local airport airspace. TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) facilities direct aircraft in its airspace during climbing and descending phases while maintaining contact with pilots (see photo below). This airspace is from the surface to 15,000 ft (FAA TRACON, n.d.).
That being said, both of these types of controllers help to ensure that air traffic is moving efficiently and safely with minimal delays and congestion. They both play very important roles in giving instructions/clearances regarding each flight. There are over 5,000 aircraft in the sky at any given moment and 43,290 average daily flights in the U.S. (FAA, n.d.), so ATC is needed. "The primary purpose of the ATC system is to prevent a collision between aircraft operating in the system and to
organize and expedite the flow of traffic" (PHAK, 2016).
More than 14,000 air traffic controllers manage traffic from the FAA's 700 facilities (FAA, n.d.).
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ATC Challenges.
ReplyDeleteAir Traffic Controllers have the main responsibility to preserve the safety in the skies while managing air traffic in an air parece that could be dull of surprises at times, for example unscheduled traffic from on-demand charter operations, private operations, VFR Traffic inside controlled airspace, and other traffic that could potentially show up in radar scope of a controller.
The FAA have a solid structure on their operations and they delegate manpower to the facilities that needed the most (LAX, ATL, JFK...). In a clear day with good visibility and ceilings, an air traffic controller can handle a greater capacity of traffic. In contrast, during inclement weather (strong winds, thunderstorms, heavy rain, snow, windshear, etc). all controllers are challenged to expect the volume of traffic to drastically impact terminal areas, airports and airspace in general due to the additional required separation. In addition, bad weather creates delays in general, all personnel at the airport can only perform their duties to certain extend and in the winter the line of airplane to get deicing could translate to lengthy ground hours.
The communication and coordination from air traffic controllers must be almost flawless to prevent further delays and preserve safety in the skies. When I work, at times I feel humble and impressed with the job that most controllers do at busy airspace’s and sectors, their progressive training and operational system have prove to be solid even at challenging times like inflight emergencies, unscheduled flights and inclement weather they are always successful.
Do you think that a portion of Air Traffic Controller duties could ever be autonomous?
Thanks for sharing this topic.
Manuel