Definition
A form of IFR routing under Tower En Route Control (TEC) in which a flight is handed off from one terminal radar approach control facility to the next, staying within approach control airspace from departure to destination without being transferred to an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC).
Plain English
An instrument flight that travels from one airport to another by being passed between approach control facilities the whole way, instead of being handed up to a high-altitude center controller.
Context Anchor
Seen in discussions of tower en route control for shorter instrument flights between nearby terminal areas.
Derivation
The phrase reflects the routing itself: the flight stays under control of one tower/approach facility after another, tower-to-tower, rather than climbing into the wider center-controlled system.
Why Pilots Care
Allows simpler and faster IFR routing for flights between close airports without requiring full approach or departure services.
Intuition Check
Tower-to-tower does not mean you are flying visually from one control tower you can see to another. It means your instrument flight is handled through local tower and approach-control facilities from departure to destination.
Example Sentence 1
For the short IFR leg from Long Beach to Camarillo, the pilot filed a TEC route and flew tower-to-tower without ever being handed off to Los Angeles Center.
Example Sentence 2
Pilots often request tower-to-tower routing when flying IFR between airports served by the same terminal area.