New York Air Route Traffic Control Center

New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZNY) is one of 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) in the United States.

Area of responsibility

It is located at 4205 Johnson Avenue on Long Island in Ronkonkoma, a hamlet (unincorporated community) in the Town of Islip, New York, United States, near New York City. Long Island MacArthur Airport is north of the ARTCC.

Their primary responsibility is the separation of overflights, and the expedited sequencing of arrivals and departures along Standard Terminal Arrival Routes and Standard Instrument Departures for the entire New York Metropolitan Area and Philadelphia.

ZNY assumes control over several Class Bravo (Class B) airports, including

• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in Newark/Elizabeth, New Jersey
• LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City, NY
• John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City, New York
• Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in Philadelphia/Tinicum Township, Delaware County, PA

Altogether, New York Center "owns" 3,270,000 square miles (8,500,000 km²) of airspace. Of that, 17,000 square miles (44,000 km²) are mainland airspace, and the remaining 3,250,000 square miles (8,400,000 km²) are oceanic airspace.

The Basic Breakdown

The sector shelves start as low 5,500 AGL and top out as high as Flight Level 600 (60,000 ft) ASL. ZNY handles a total of 28 sectors, excluding Oceanic sectors. These are broken down into Low Altitude and High Altitude sectors, with 16 Low Altitude sectors and 12 High altitude sectors. Within the Center there are 6 Areas, which other ARTCC's might call specialties.

Area Breakdown

In ZNY, the Areas are Lettered A through F.

Area A covers the southeast edge of Pennsylvania. This area alone works as many operations in a year as all of Seattle Center. Area A put arrivals in trail for Philadelphia TRACON via the BUNTS feed (its busiest) heading to Philadelphia Int'l (PHL), Wilmington DE Airport (ILG) and other Eastern PA and Northern NJ airports. The area also feeds traffic into PCT (Potomac Consolidated TRACON) which runs arrivals and departures for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), and other area airports. Area A also feeds Harrisburg Approach, controlling Harrisburg Int'l (MDT), Lancaster Airport (LNS), Allentown Airport (ABE) and other PA airports. Area A's high altitude sectors work departures from all the above airports, and feed them in to existing streams received from Area B departing NY & BOS metro areas as well as those coming from over the ocean and from Canada. This traffic is handed off in trail on en route airways to Washington Center (ZDC) to the South and Cleveland Center (ZOB) to the West.

Area B covers the East side of Pennsylvania, the northern half of New Jersey, and Long Island west of Deer Park (DPK). Area B controls departures heading west, south, and southwest out of N90 (New York TRACON). Area B sequences most of those departures into streams for the STARs to BWI, IAD, and DCA. Area B also sequences all Boston Logan (BOS) arrivals travelling over JFK Airport (JFK) and Hartford's Bradley International Airport (BDL).

Area C covers the northern edge of Pennsylvania, and controls both eastbound arrivals into JFK on the LENDY5 STAR and some westbound departures out of N90.

Area D is in the middle of Pennsylvania and borders the Cleveland ARTCC's (ZOB) east border. Area D handles the PHL SPUDS1/SLATT1 STAR along with PHL departures departing via the PTW (Pottstown VOR, or VHF omnidirectional range) exit westbound. Area D's High Altitude sectors handle all westbound N90 departures, and the MIP3 (Milton 3) STAR into LGA and FQM1 (Williamsport 1) STAR into EWR.

Area E is the first set of Oceanic sectors that mainly have control over the Atlantic just offshore from New York and New Jersey. Area E maintains 2 radar sectors that are both 'offshore'. The first is Sector 66. This sectors owns airspace to the southeast of Kennedy (South of Long Island). There are no VORs or airports within this sector. However, this is one of the busiest sectors within the facility. Mainly due to numerous aircraft that are 'head-on' and are required to descend/ascend through each others altitudes. Because of this, there is a lot of vectoring and speed control involved. Warning area 107, when active, takes a big chunk of the sectors airspace thus adding to its complexity. The second 'offshore' radar sector in Area E is Sector 82. Aircraft are off-loaded to this sector when there is weather along the east coast of the US. The rest of the sectors in Area E are all non-radar (ATOPS) sectors that control traffic going to/from the Caribbean Islands and Bermuda.

Area F is the other set of Oceanic sectors, and maintains control of the North and South Atlantic. Area F assumes responsibility for two "mainland" high altitude oceanic sectors just off the coast of New York. Area F also controls the area of the North Atlantic including Bermuda. (Bermuda International Airport only controls flights on approach, departure and while on the ground.) The rest of the sectors in Area F are all non-radar (ATOPS) sectors. They control flights that are crossing to/from Europe in the North and South Atlantic.

Areas E and F are bordered by:

• Miami ARTCC - KZMA/ZMA (Miami, Florida)
• Jacksonville ARTCC - KZJX/ZJX (Hilliard, Florida)
• Washington ARTCC - KZDC/ZDC (Leesburg, Virginia)
• Boston ARTCC - KZBW/ZBW (Nashua, New Hampshire)
• San Juan FIR - TJZS/ZSU (Puerto Rico)
• Piarco FIR (Piarco, Trinidad and Tobago)
• Shanwick Oceanic Control (United Kingdom)
• Santa Maria FIR (Azores, Portugal)
• Moncton FIR - CZQM (Moncton, New Brunswick)
• Gander FIR - CZQX (Gander, Newfoundland)

Areas and Frequencies

Area A

High Altitude Sectors

• EMI 09 (Westminster 09) - 134.32
• HAR 10 (Harrisburg 10) - 133.47

Low Altitude Sectors

• MXE 25 (Modena 25) - 135.45
• LRP 26 (Lancaster 26) - 120.02/ Backup 133.17
• MDT 27 (Middletown 27) - 132.2

Area B

High Altitude Sectors

• ETX 42 (East Texas 42) - 127.17
• JFK 56 (Kennedy 56) - 125.32

Low Altitude Sectors

• PARKE 39 (PARKE 39) - 132.1
• ARD 55 (Yardley 55) - 134.6
• DIXIE 68 (DIXIE 68) - 118.97

Area C

High Altitude Sectors

• ULW 34 (Elmira 34) - 132.17
• SFK 49 (Stony Fork 49) - 121.32

Low Altitude Sectors

• HUO 35 (Huguenot 35) - 132.6
• SAX 36 (Sparta 36) - 133.15
• CFB 50 (Binghamton 50) - 133.35
• LHY 51 (Lake Henry 51) - 134.45

Area D

High Altitude Sectors

• PSB 73 (Phillipsburg 73) - 132.87
• MIP 75 (Milton 75) - 128.57

Low Altitude Sectors

• BWZ 74 (Broadway 74) - 132.15
• FQM 91 (Williamsport 91) - 124.9/ 134.8
• PTW 92 (Pottstown 92) - 124.62
• SWISSDALE 93 (Swissdale 93) - 123.62

Area E

High Altitude Sectors

• PAEPR 82 (PAEPR 82) - 126.025
• HANRI 83 (HANRI 83) - 133.525

Low Altitude Sectors

• MANTA 66 (Ship Bottom, NJ) - 128.3

Non-Radar Sectors

87, 88, 89, 90 (All ATOPS sectors)

Area F

High Altitude Sectors

• JOBOC 65 (JOBOC 65) - 125.92
• ATLANTIC 86 (Barnegat, NJ) - 133.5 // 354.000
• BDA 81 (BERMUDA) - 128.5

Non-Radar Sectors

16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24 (All ATOP sectors)

References

Coordinates: 40°47′3.5″N 73°5′48.7″W / 40.784306°N 73.096861°W / 40.784306; -73.096861