Minneapolis Center overlies or abuts 18 approach control facilities including Appleton, Bismarck, Des Moines, Duluth, Fargo, Grand Forks, Green Bay, Great Lakes (Saginaw), Lincoln, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Minot, Omaha, Rochester, Sioux City, Sioux Falls and St Joseph TRACONs and is responsible for approximately 210 uncontrolled airports with authorized instrument approach procedures.
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.
Area 3 works with both Minneapolis and Rochester approaches, and provides radar and non-radar services for numerous secondary airports.
Complexity is increased with additional aircraft spacing to multiple large airports, including JFK, EWR, DEN and DFW and ORD.
A combination of low and high altitude sectors, Area 4 provides initial sequencing of MSP arrivals from the west, manages westbound MSP departures, sequences ORD arrivals, and implements traffic management initiatives for traffic landing in the northeast portion of the country.
Area 5 is split evenly between high and low altitude, and handles a wide variety of over flight, arrival, international, and local traffic.
Area 5 sequences for DEN, MSP, ORD, JFK on a daily basis and handles a wide array of military and non-radar activity.