The world's airports feature so many prominent construction projects. The airport's air traffic control tower is among the most noticeable at any given field. Built primarily for functionality, the form that some towers take draws inspiration from architectural trends and is designed to be beautiful. In other cases, control towers are built to stand tall to provide controllers with panoramic views of the airport. Here's a list of the five tallest air traffic control towers in the United States.
1 Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
398 ft, 121m
It stands to reason that the world's busiest airport would crack the top five list for US airport control tower heights. As it so happens, Atlanta's tower is currently the tallest ATC facility in the country. Standing just under 400 feet, Atlanta Tower is only the fifth tallest in the world. Jeddah, Kuala Lampur's terminal 2 tower, Bangkok, and Kuala Lampur's main tower are all over 400 feet tall.
Atlanta's current control tower was built in 2006 and opened with the airport's southerly runway (10/28). Runway 10/28 is about a mile from the main terminal area in Atlanta, so the tower was built to provide controllers with visibility of the runway and views of the airport's other four runways.
After landing on runway 10/28, pilots vacate to the north of the runway and are flanked by lots of trees. (Atlanta is affectionately called "the city forest," and the airport is surrounded by dense foliage, much like the rest of the city). The only part of the terminal area that pilots and passengers can see before turning the corner at the SG or SC taxiways is Atlanta's massive control tower. Likewise, the drive to the airport from the north down Interstate 75 is flanked by trees on both sides. The first evidence you're approaching the airport is the massive tower that rises high above the treetops in the distance.
2 Charlotte-Douglas International Airport
370ft, 113m
Charlotte Airport's control tower comes in second on the list thanks to the newly constructed facility that opened in 2022. The new tower was built to provide unobstructed views of all four current runways at Charlotte, as well as of a new runway, which is currently under construction in the middle of the airport's current footprint. The new runway will be between the two existing western runways and primarily serve departing traffic. It will feature two end-around taxiways (similar to Atlanta's taxiways V and W) and is slated to be opened in 2027.
According to data from the construction firm The Walsh Group, Charlotte's new tower was built for $61.5M. As Charlotte's tower is the newest major ATC tower, it gives insight into the current construction cost of a new facility. The tower features a massive "cab" (where the controllers work) and a 42,000-square-foot building at the base of the tower, which serves as an administrative building for the FAA and houses the controllers for Charlotte's terminal area radar control center.
3 Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport
352 ft, 107m
Las Vegas' new-ish tower ranks number three on the list of US tower heights. Completed in 2016, Las Vegas Tower is the tallest tower among many others that are very close in size (numbers four and five on the list are only separated from Las Vegas by only 2 meters). The Walsh Group managed the building project, which took 5 years to complete. Las Vegas tower was built primarily from concrete and was constructed without any crossbars or beams obstructing the views from the cab. Therefore, local and ground controllers have unlimited panoramic views of the airport's ramp areas and four runways.
Aside from views of the airports, Reid International's proximity to the Las Vegas Strip (less than a mile from the western edge of the airport) grants views of one of the brightest streets in the world: Las Vegas Boulevard. Pilots and passengers alike are privy to views of the remarkable Las Vegas Strip during operations in any direction, assuming passengers are seated on the proper side of the plane.
The newly constructed Las Vegas Sphere (2023) is so bright that it can be seen, weather permitting, from over a hundred miles away. Similarly, the entire side of the 59-story Resorts World Las Vegas is an LED advertisement board with an equally impressive viewing range at night. I've seen these features of the Las Vegas night skyline from as far away as the Drake VOR/waypoint just north of Phoenix, a whopping 160 nautical miles away from Las Vegas.
4 Indianapolis International Airport
348 ft, 106m
Indy Tower falls into the fourth spot on the list. This is a somewhat unassuming tower to be this high on the list, with Indianapolis International Airport serving fewer than 10 million passengers in 2023. This makes the airport only the 47th busiest in the country, behind relatively small airports such as John Wayne/Orange County and Fort Myers, Florida.
Though not a busy hub airport, Indianapolis features the Weir Cook Terminal, one of the country's most open-aired and beautiful terminal buildings. The Weir Cook Terminal was opened in November 2008, two years after the construction of the control tower. The terminal and tower were a combined project to grow and modernize the airport in Indy.
5 Orlando International Airport
348ft, 106m
Compared to Indianapolis, Orlando's tower ranking in the top five makes a lot of sense. Orlando International has a massive footprint: 12,264 acres, making it the fourth largest in the US behind airports like Denver and Dallas-Ft. Worth. Accordingly, a tower with a height of over 100 meters makes a lot of sense for controllers to have visibility over the entire airport.
Orlando Tower sits between the airport's "Airside 3 and 4" concourses, placing it just about at the center of the massive airport. The tower partially replaced a US Air Force facility: McCoy Air Force Base. When the base closed in 1975, Orlando Airport kept the identifier "MCO," which remains to this day.
There you have it: the top five tallest ATC towers in the US. Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Orlando are all some of the busiest airports in the country, while Indianapolis stands as an outlier, being a relatively small airport by passenger traffic. There do not appear to be any construction projects in the works for towers larger than Orlando, so it seems that this list will remain unchanged for at least the next few years.
