Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center

Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC) is an Area Control Center operated by the Federal Aviation Administration and located at Lawson Rd SE, Leesburg, Virginia, United States.

The primary responsibility of ZDC is the separation of airplane flights and the expedited sequencing of arrivals and departures along STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes) and SIDs (Standard Instrument Departures) for the Washington-Baltimore Metropolitan Area, the New York Metropolitan Area, and Philadelphia among many other areas.

Washington Center is the fourth busiest ARTCC in the United States.

[1] The Washington ARTCC covers 165,000 square miles (430,000 km2) of airspace that includes airports in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina.

When traffic demand is high, Wahoo is activated to overlap the Gordonsville High Sector above FL330 covering J37 and J75 from GVE VOR south while Shenandoah will overlap Tech High Sector above FL 330 and cover traffic on J48 from CSN VOR south, J22 from MOL VOR south and J53 south of ASBUR intersection near LWB VOR.