Washington Center is the second busiest (after Atlanta) ARTCC in the United States. Between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017, Washington Center handled 2,554,410 aircraft operations.[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.
Basic breakdown of sectors
ZDC is divided into 8 areas, numbered 1 through 8, that make up 46 sectors. They are mainly broken down into low altitude, intermediate, high altitude and Super High Altitude sectors. There are 18 low sectors, 14 high sectors, 5 super high sectors and 4 various other type sectors, including 1 high/low altitude sector and 3 intermediate altitude sectors.
During periods of traffic saturation in the Shenandoah Sector, ZDC will split the Shenandoah sector into two sectors, making Wahoo a second Super High Sector over the Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia areas. Shenandoah normally overlaps the Tech High and Gordonsville High Sectors above FL330. 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.
High sectors
32 Gordonsville GVE 133.725/351.900
52 Tech TEC 133.575/270.350
Intermediate sectors
60 Montebello MOL 121.675/284.700
Low sectors
31 Azalea AZA 135.400/263.100
AREA 2
High sectors
36 Raleigh RDU 118.925/322.450
Low sectors
26 Sampson SAM 135.300/285.500
27 Liberty LIB 135.200/348.650
28 Rocky Mount RMT 118.475/279.650
AREA 3
High sectors
37 Marlinton MAR 133.025/323.025
Low sectors
02 Casanova CSN 133.200/282.200
05 Linden LDN 133.550/322.550
22 South Boston SBV 124.050/352.000
29 NEW Valley VAL (formerly Hot Springs HSP)134.400/353.900
Sector 30 OLD Valley VAL has been changed to NEW 72 Shenandoah SHD Super Hi Sector in Area 1 above. Old Valley Sector merged into Sector 29 Hot Springs.