Phoenix, AZ -- The Federal Aviation Administration and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will dedicate a brand new, 326-foot-tall Air Traffic Control Tower April 11. The new Tower is nearly twice as tall as the previous Air Traffic Control Tower at Sky Harbor. “Phoenix needs a new Tower that will help it grow, not hold it back,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters when she toured the facility earlier this year. “This new Air Traffic Control Tower provides growing room for a growing city.”

The $89 million facility features new digital and ground radar technology. Its height provides an unobstructed view of the entire airfield for air traffic controllers. The impressive structure can be seen from miles away in the Phoenix metropolitan area. “The new Tower at Sky Harbor has changed the Phoenix skyline and serves as a new landmark for the City,” said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. “It’s a reminder that one of Arizona’s top economic engines is located right in the heart of Phoenix.”

The new facility also co-locates the Tower and Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON at the Phoenix Airport. For the past several decades, the two have been housed in separate locations at Sky Harbor. Controllers inside of the Tower manage all of the takeoffs, landings and ground movement at Sky Harbor. TRACON controllers manage air traffic in the Phoenix air space. The two groups work hand-in-hand. Now, their workplaces are much closer and more conveniently located to one another. "The modernization and transition into the new facilities will bring air traffic in the Phoenix Valley and Sky Harbor Airport into the next era,” said Phil Thornton, Phoenix TRACON Manager for the Federal Aviation Administration.