Air Bosses coordinate with ATC, but not all ATC is the same. There are three distinct facility types, and understanding which one controls which airspace stratum is essential for pre-show planning. The Air Traffic Control Tower — ATCT — controls ground movement and local flight in the Class D or surface area of a Class Bor C airport. That’s your primary coordination point for show operations.

And TRACON is separate from the tower?

Completely separate — separately staffed, different building in most cases. TRACON, or Approach Control, handles IFR and VFR traffic within roughly thirty to fifty nautical miles of the airport. Performers flying in from a distance are likely to talk to Approach before they ever get to the tower frequency. That’s who’s coordinating their arrival routing.

What about Center?

ARTCC — Air Route Traffic Control Center — handles en-route IFR traffic above roughly ten thousand feet MSL and beyond TRACON coverage. For a large TFR or performers flying long-distance IFR legs, Center is involved. You need to know which facility controls each airspace stratum your performers will use before and after the show.

So the pre-show coordination checklist has to cover all three.

Identify the controlling facility for each relevant stratum, brief performers on which frequency to use with each one, and establish a point of contact at each applicable facility before show day. Not on show day — before. Coordinate performer arrival routing, TFR notification, and airport re-opening with each facility that has a stake in it.

Getting that wrong on show day means you’re making phone calls during the morning brief instead of running it.

And that’s a situational awareness problem before the first aircraft even starts its engine.