With so many airplanes flying around, how airports around the world able to track so many airplanes and prevent them from colliding with each other? Is it basically, “alright, so this plane is coming from this route, do not put any plane on this route”?

Question

With so many airplanes flying around, how airports around the world able to track so many airplanes and prevent them from colliding with each other? Is it basically, “alright, so this plane is coming from this route, do not put any plane on this route”?

In: Other

Answer 1

Air Traffic controllers (see the movie Pushing Tin). Each airline has its own callsign which gets displayed on radar screen. Each controller would be in charge of directing certain number of flights.

There are also certain air routes and altitudes that planes fly at, depending if they are heading east-ish or west-ish, they will have different 1000′ separations.

Planes now also have collision avoidance radar and procedures in case something goes wrong. Sometimes a private pilot might accidentally stray into an airline route.