Washington (ZDC) Air Route Traffic Control Center

ZDC Information

The Washington ARTCC (ZDC) was originally established on April 1, 1937, at Washington Hoover Airport which is the current location of the Pentagon. The facility later moved operations to Hanger 6 at Washington National Airport. The current facility, located in the historic town of Leesburg, Virginia, opened on April 28, 1963. It was constructed on land donated by the citizens of Loudoun County.

ZDC is one of 20 FAA ARTCC's in the contiguous United States and is the fourth busiest enroute center in the nation (as of July,2025). The facility handled more than 2.4 million flights in 2024. On March 24,2005, ZDC observed a record 10,682 daily operations and over 3 million operations that year.

ZDC controls 240,000 square miles of airspace above the following states:

New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
West Virginia
New York
South Carolina
Pennsylvania

For detailed information on area of coverage and frequencies check the RR Database entry page;

Washington (ZDC) Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC)

ZDC is the busiest enroute facility in the nation with regards to military operations. Several military installations, including Oceana NAS, Seymour-Johnson AFB and Cherry Point MCAS, work directly with ZDC, while other bases underly TRACONs and Approach Controls that are delegated by ZDC (Pope AFB, Paxtuxent NAS, Andrews AFB).

Washington Center is divided into 45 sectors that are organized into 6 areas of specialization. These 45 sectors consist of ultra-high altitude, high altitude, intermediate altitude, and low altitude sectors. Due to the type and volume of traffic worked at ZDC, many of these sectors are further stratified and contain numerous shelves. ZDC's airspace is highly complex and transitions aircraft into and out of 11 of the nation's 50 busiest airports.

Washington Center is surrounded by airspace owned by New York, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Jacksonville Centers.

Related Aviation Wiki Pages

Maryland

New Jersey

North Carolina

Raleigh Durham International Airport (RDU) Wake County (NC)

Virginia

West Virginia

WV ANG 167th Airlift Wing

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