Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center

Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZMP), (radio communications, "Minneapolis Center") is one of 22Area Control Centers. It is located at 512 Division Street in Farmington, Minnesota, United States.

The primary responsibility of Minneapolis Center is sequencing and separation of overflights, arrivals, and departures, in order to provide safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of aircraft filed under instrument flight rules (IFR).

Minneapolis Center is the 13th busiest ARTCC in the United States. Between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012, Minneapolis Center handled 1,808,794 aircraft. Minneapolis Center covers approximately 330,000 square miles of the United States Midwest region, including all or parts of Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri.

Minneapolis Center employs close to 400 air traffic employees, approximately 300 of whom are air traffic controllers. Minneapolis Center lies adjacent to 7 separate Area Control Centers, including Toronto Center, Winnipeg Center, Cleveland Center, Salt Lake City Center, Denver Center, Kansas City Center, and Chicago Center. ZMP overlies or abuts 18 approach control facilities (including APN, MBS, GRB, MSP, DLH, YQT, GFK, FAR, MOT, BIS, FSD, SUX, LNK, OMA, DSM, STJ, RST, and MKE approaches) and is responsible for approximately 210 uncontrolled airports with authorized instrument approach procedures.

Minneapolis Center is divided into six Areas, numbered 1 through 6. Each area contains up to 7 sectors. Normally, only six areas are in use, however, there is a seventh area, referred to as area 51 which is in use during time of high traffic volume (e.g. during the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI) training, or for equipment testing. Each of the six areas is delegated at least one high altitude and one low altitude sector.

Area 1 is located over the northern Great Lakes. It contains four low altitude sectors and two high altitude sectors. Area 1 borders or overlies 9 approach control facilities, three class D airports, and borders 4 Area Control centers. Area 1 handles a wide array of traffic, including sequencing into Minneapolis and Chicago, several large military complexes, and provides arrival and departure services at many smaller airports. Traffic in Area 1 is extremely seasonal in nature, with traffic increasing in volume and complexity during the summer months, particularly during the EAA AirVenture air show in late July and Early August.

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