In
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...
, a control area (CTA) is the volume of
controlled airspace that exists in the vicinity of an airport. It has a specified lower level and a specified upper level. It usually is situated on top of a
control zone and provides protection to aircraft climbing out from the airport by joining the low-level control zone to the nearest airways. In the UK they are generally class A, D or E.
Control areas are particularly useful where there are busy airports located close together. In this case a single CTA will sit over all of the individual airports'
CTRs. In larger-scale cases, this is known as a
terminal manoeuvring area (TMA).
See also
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Airway (aviation)
In the United States, airways or air routes are defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in two ways:
"VOR Federal airways and Low/Medium Frequency (L/MF) (Colored) Federal airways"
These are designated routes which aeroplanes f ...
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Flight information region
In aviation, a flight information region (FIR) is a specified region of airspace in which a flight information service and an alerting service (ALRS) are provided. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) delegates which country is re ...
Air traffic control
{{Commercial air travel