Each of the nine service units that make up the ATO is responsible for specific and unique objectives, though all service units collaborate to ensure the organization fulfills its mission to the flying public. As a new employee, it is important for you to understand where your current job fits within the ATO. Here is how the organization is structured, followed by summaries on the services provided by the operational and support service units:

En Route & Oceanic Services

When an airplane reaches cruising altitude, miles above the ground or the oceans, En Route and Oceanic Services controllers take over from Terminal Services to guide the plane across the nation’s airways. From 21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers spread throughout the country, en route controllers keep airplanes safely separated as they follow the nation’s airways.

System Operations

System Operations employees always focus on the weather, the traffic and the security issues of the entire country to make sure the NAS is operating as smoothly and efficiently as possible. After coordinating with the airlines, general aviation and the military, traffic management specialists make the call to implement ground stops, ground delay programs, flight services operations or airspace flow programs to keep planes moving despite constraints on the system.

Technical Operations

Over 41,000 pieces of equipment make the NAS run each day, and Technical Operations is responsible for ensuring every one of them is working. They make sure the controllers can communicate with the flight crews, the radars can track the airplanes, and the targets show up in the right place on the scopes.

Terminal Services

Perhaps the most visible service unit in the ATO, thanks to their location high above the nation’s runways, Terminal Services employees guide planes in and out of busy airports across the country. These controllers vector pilots onto final approach from the radar room of a TRACON, and they direct aircraft from runway to taxiway to gate.