Plain English Meaning

A way to fly an instrument flight plan from one airport to another by being handed off between approach controllers the whole way, instead of being passed up to the higher-level controllers who normally handle longer cross-country flights.

Full Definition

An air traffic control service that allows IFR aircraft to fly between two terminal areas using only approach control facilities, without entering the en route (Center) environment. Tower En Route Control (TEC) routes are published, typically used for relatively short flights at lower altitudes, and handled entirely by a sequence of TRACONs.

Context Anchor

Seen during IFR planning and in for short flights between airports in busy metropolitan areas.